I want others opinion on this.

Norton/Symantec Ghost is the best there is to backup your system and other discs. The disc image backup can be restored to any disc if your system crashes.

I use Windows XP Backup utility, making ASR with diskette boot, Total and Incremental backups, and its' important that the backup files are stored in another media/disc than the system and data discs. I have installed two discs in the PC, one for system and data and one for backup files. The best backup media may be an external tape but that is for now to complex for me. I'm not 100% sure the Windows XP Backup is enough but I think so, for now, read the backup doumentation to find out.

I crashed my PC in the summer of 2005, had no good backup, just partly, spent 3-4 weeks to reestablish the contents, a lot of data and applications, and some data were forever lost, some of it also not missed for one day.

Regards,
Otto
http://www.navigate3d.com

It all depends on how vital it is to have minimal downtime. If you need to be up and running quickly, you should have a fairly current Ghost image of your drive sitting around somewhere. If you just care about your data, Windows backup is just fine.

Personally, since all I care about is my data, I just use Windows Backup, and I back up my documents monthly, because I can always reinstall on my personal system, and not have to worry about downtime affecting anything that I do. Besides, I have spare systems that I can utilize while I'm reinstalling...

I've changed to backup with Norton Ghost 10, with a dedicated disc#2 in the PC for backup data, automated total backup on Sundays at 10pm and automated incremental backup at 10pm every day from Monday to Saturday, automated backup disc space management.

Works fine

Otto
http://www.navigate3d.com