I use Acronis True Image to create fully system images of my first drive (which is configured to dual boot both Windows XP and Windows Vista). True Image can back up data files, too. The cool part is that you can "mount" the backup file as a drive letter, which then allows you to work with the files in a Windows Explorer screen. While True Image will let you create an image file from within Windows, sometimes it craps out because Windows does something under the hood while it's backing itself up. When I use True Image, I always use the separate boot disk to run the program (it loads a small Linux kernel), so nothing in Windows is running when I create the image. I also set the option to verify the backup. Using this method has always produced a copy that I can use to restore (which has always been successful to me).

Make sure that whatever imaging product you use (and there are some free ones out there, as well), that you test the restore function. Your backup image is only as good as it's ability to restore. I've heard too many people say that they did their backups religiously, only to find out that the backup files were unreadable when they needed them.

I usually just set Acronis right before I go to bed; that way, when I wake up, the backup is done and I just reboot my computer and start working again.

I also use WinZip, but with the command line interface, as part of a batch file. That gives me full control over what individual files and folders I want to back up and exclude the ones I don't want to back up. I save both the system images and the Winzip backups to an external USB drive, but I also make sure that none of my backup files are larger than 4.7GB (Acronis True Image allows you to split the files as you backup and WinZip allows you to split files also); that way, every so often, I write everything out to DVD discs. Sure, it takes time; however, I've also got two identical DVD-R's on my PC, so I can actually do two at the same time. In the end, it's a good insurance policy.

John

Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD
Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA

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