Having spent a lot of time getting a new PC set up as I want it with Windows XP Home, I'd like to take a snapshot of the system to an external drive, so I can recover to that point if I ever need a new disk, or have to reformat the old one. Can Windows System Restore be persuaded to do that? I don't really want a full disk image like Ghost generates. Clive Perkins
Sorry, System Restore does not do the job, and a Ghost-type disk image is what you need. Acronis True Image seems to be the software of choice at the moment, but there are half a dozen alternatives including Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows (www.bootitng.com/imagew.html), and Easeus (www.easeus.com/disk-copy), which is free.
