Windows XP comes with an excellent backup program that will restore from bare bones. It doesn't install by default on XP Home Edition, but it's on the disk and free.
I've had to do a system recovery restore in an emergency situation and it worked like a charm.
The 900 dollar server backup program from Veritas was a total loss. Completely unusuable when actually needed to restore a server.
Agree on most points. Veritas is an expensive waste of time.
One of the things that makes Acronis True Image worthwhile is its ability to mount an image as a drive. Has a decent scheduling engine, too. It's also handy tobe able to boot from an Acronis-built CD and pull an image across a network. This program has been a real life-saver.
The old NTbackup program that ships with XP isn't bad, but it's not as effective a bare metal restoration tool, IMHO.