[Joeaksa]

Do you have the factory "reinstall" CD that came with it?

If you copy the entire "C" drive over you will end up with a lot of crap and a fuller USB drive. Put your data into a directory called "saved files" or the like and then copy it to the external drive.

What I do is to partition the drive when new (partition magic works well for this if its not blank) and make a "C" and "D" drive partitions. All the data (photos, letters and so on) go on the "D" drive.

That way when needed I can put the factory reinstall disk in the drive and have it format "C" and put everything back stock. I then get to reload the additional programs then am done. As well none of my data has been disturbed on the "D" drive.

With my newest laptop I made the hard drive as I wanted it, then made a mirror image of it on a drive that was 120 gig, double the factor size. Then put the mirror'ed drive in the laptop and the original drive sits in my safe. When I have an issue I pull the original drive out, format the 120 gig drive and mirror the drives. That way I do not have to re-install the additional programs and such. Completes in about an hour and am ready to go in two hours, instead of taking most of a day loading crap.

BTW, none of this takes the place of making backups. Do this every week or so. Its not fun to lose data...