I have spent many years backing up in many different ways but I think I have finally found the absolute simplest, foolproof, best way yet. DriveImageXML creates an image of any partiton on any drive on your computer and does so with just a couple of button clicks. The user interface is totally idiot proof. Honest. You open the programme and then choose one of the buttons to either Backup, Restore, copy Drive to Drive or Browse. Once you backup you simply burn the files to disk or copy to some other external device. The image file can be used to totally restore your computer.

Backup - Clicking this button gives you a window where you can choose which drive you want to backup. Most of you will only have a C: drive so select it and click Next. A wizard will start guiding you through the rest of your backup. First, choose where you want the backup image to be saved ready for burning later (I have created a folder called DriveImageBackups). Leave the other options as they are however you can change the split large files or the compression. For backups I prefer to leave files uncompressed as I figure it's just one thing less that could go wrong.

Click Next and the backup will start. This can take a while, 15 minutes or so depending on the size of the drive. Two files will be created, an .xml and a .dat file. You need to copy both these files to a disc or external drive after the backup is complete. I also leave those files on my computer deleting them just before I do the next backup.

Browse - If you should require part of your backup you can get to it by using the Browse button. If you are on a different computer you first need to install DriveImageXML. Click the Browse button and then navigate to the .xml file you created whether it be on a disc, on a hard drive in your computer or on an external hard drive. From here you can extract individual files.

Restore - My understanding is that you cannot restore your C: drive if you are booted into C: drive ie. if C is where your only version of windows is installed you won't be able to restore it from that computer. Restore means you will have an exact replica of how your drive was setup at the time the backup was made and includes all programmes, everything.

Don't discount this just yet though as a great resource as you still have some options depending on why you want the backup restored.

* Take your hard drive out of your computer. Don't go all blank on me now, if I can do it, anyone can. There are some good instructions here on how to install a new drive as a slave. You can use the instructions to figure out how to remove your hard drive as well. To unplug the 2 leads from it you simply pull hard at the same time wriggling from side to side. Find another computer that you can plug that drive into as a slave and install DriveImageXML onto that computer. Connect the USB/external hard drive or insert the disc that contains your backup, open DriveImageXML and then do the Restore. Note that on this 2nd computer the drive that was C: on your first computer will now have a different letter, being a slave, probably D or E. Put the drive back into your computer as master and boot up. All should be good.

* If you are not comfortabel doing that but are desparate to get your computer back to normal then you can take it to a repair shop along with your backup (tell them it's a drive image) and ask them to restore it explaining it was made with DriveImageXML. If they seem unsure then go somwewhere else.

Drive to Drive - I had cause to use this feature yesterday and it worked like a dream. I was given an older computer I wanted to fix up for a friend. It only had a 4GB hard drive in it - strange. I found a spare old 20GB hard drive and connected it as a slave, booted up the computer and installed DriveImageXML. I clicked the Drive to Drive button and followed the wizard telling it to copy the C: drive to E:, the slave. I'm not sure how long it took as I left to do other things but when I returned 20 minutes later it was all finished. I shut down the computer, unplugged both drives and plugged the 20GB drive in as master. Hit the power button again and Dada!!! It all booted up just as it had before.

Note that you cannot restore an image to a different computer with different hardware

DriveImageXML FAQs page