Hard drive backup software

Hello

I've just reinstalled WinXP and all the apps that I normally use. I want to make a hard drive backup so I can just use that as a recovery CD next time, and avoid 15 hours of reinstalling apps and getting everything how I like it.

I looked at Norton Ghost 10 but it seems to be for procedural backups which isn't what I want - I want to back up my entire hard drive, then revert to that backup (effectively a fresh install) later.

Oh - I'm currently suffering from Post Christmas Wallet Disorder, so, preferably a free/almost free solution!

Xcopy ?
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/xcopy.mspx?mfr=true
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCOPY

ghost makes very good "base loads" just exactly like you want.

I use Acronis True Image 9 http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ and am happy with it

What I read about Ghost, seemed to explain it as an alternative to Windows System Restore. It also said that older restore points got deleted to save disc space. That being the case wouldn't my original restore point (i.e. the one I really want) get deleted?

Other question about Ghost - what's the procedure for restoring a hard drive?

TrueImage 10 for me; works extreamly well in making full images (weekly), and selecive file backups (daily).

Neil

Norton Ghost 10 for me.

It makes backs up your Hard Drive fully allowing you to restore it anytime. Also, if you installed anything after you make the image of the HD, with a few clicks you can add the changes to the image you already have saving you having to make a full image from the start again

What I do is install windows, install all the updates, drivers and software I want then make an image of the HD with NGhost. If something happens or I want to restore the HD to it's state when I installed everything all I do is boot in to the PC using the Ghost CD. From there it's a few click and you can restore the PC using the ghost image. It takes about 30 minutes if you have a large Ghost image.

Once it's done, you reboot and voila, your PC is restored to how you had it when you first installed.

what amon said... ghost is really easy to use and while you can use it like system restore, it also does what you want as well... and it's just a boot from a cd and a few mouse clicks from a complete restore.

Driveimage XML along with a custom image of BartPE and the Driveimage XML plugin will do what you want and for free. I use this combo all the time and it works well.

Thanks for the replies. :)

driveimage xml !

Regarding Ghosting, any free-alts for us cheap bastards?

Been thinking about burning me a backup of my system after it's all installed/updated (essentially what Amon explained), but no real idea how exactly to take said backup and have the PC read the disc on boot-up to copy crap over without resorting to finding me a start-up disc that has DVD-ROM drivers included for the command prompt. ;/