[gchappel]

Need some guidance for computer backup.
Windows xp pro, home system, no network
I have "faithfully" been using an external maxtor external harddrive and the supplied Retrospect Express software for my backups over the last 8 months or so. I recently had a hardware failure, and my C drive basically went away, unbootable, local guys could not recover. BTW my data is all on a seperate drive, so no data loss here. I thought no problem, I have my backup. What a pain. At least with this software you first must reload windows and a couple of the service upgrades. Then you reload the restore program and go from there to recovery. The recovery was error prone, with multiple steps involved. I did recover the majority of the programs on C. I lost several links, had to reregister several programs, like adobe cs2, etc. Things are basically running, but I still have some final clean up to do. It took 2 days on and off after they installed a new harddrive. There has to be an easier way?
I am looking for a backup system that will back up my entire computer, including operating system probalby to an external harddrive. I don't have anything that vital on this machine but I could see a full backup once a month and an incremental backup weekly. It would be nice if that were automated, but manual would not be a big deal. BUT when the bad stuff happens I would like to be able to boot from a recovery CD, push a couple of buttons, come back the next morning and have my machine back- exactly like it was. Is that too much to ask from software? I used Norton Ghost 10+ years ago, it was pretty cumbersome at that time but I think it did complete recoveries. What are you guys using?
Thanks
Gary