For brain-dead Windows restore from an extermal hard drive, Ghost on, Ghost off. Basically it’s just a snapshot of the hard drive that you can restore onto any other machine. I’m sure there are other hard drive snapshot programs out there.
In using it so far the only problem I’ve had is with drivers when restoring to a different system. You won’t have that problem restoring to the same system.
Thanks. You answered a question I had about Vista and XP allowing an image. Same system ok. I haven't used ghost in years because I no longer use my computer for business and if I lose my stuff, so what:) I keep all my really personal files on flash drives and don't worry about losing the programs.