+1 for acronis true image 10. I use this to backup my entire hd weekly on both my desktop and laptop to a 250gb external. Gets the job done, and is extremely easy to use. Takes about 15 minutes to backup and about the same to restore completely. Whats nice is that it even comes with the option of making a bootable cd so you can boot straight to acronis and recover (nice function if you're hd fails).