YEH! I completely agree with you.
 I've been using True Image
(http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage) for a long
time, I must say that it's the easiest backup solution I've ever seen:
I just create an image of my HDD and I keep this image on my PC in
secured (provide by Acronis) and another copy on the several CD-RW
disks (but it allows use non-compressed image). Also I do incremental
backup every day using built-in task sheduler, and once a month I
remake full backup. Before it I copy previous image with all
incremental backups on DVD.
So, I guess it's completely satisfy your requirement, True Image is
cheaper then some other soft of this type. And you can try free trial
version before buy.

Solei wrote:

> YEH! I completely agree with you.
> I've been using True Image
> (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage) for a long
> time, I must say that it's the easiest backup solution I've ever seen:
> I just create an image of my HDD and I keep this image on my PC in
> secured (provide by Acronis) and another copy on the several CD-RW
> disks (but it allows use non-compressed image). Also I do incremental
> backup every day using built-in task sheduler, and once a month I
> remake full backup. Before it I copy previous image with all
> incremental backups on DVD.



I use DrvImagerXP.  When I downloaded the software in October, 2003, there
had been 4 700 downloads recorded.  Today, the number is 47 800 (I just
checked).  It has served me magnificently, being solidly reliable, without
one single incidence of misbehaviour.  The only downside is it needs .NET
Framework to run on in a separate partition (I don't use that otherwise).
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/DrvImagerXP.shtml
But the best part about it is, it's completely free.  Oh...there is no help
from the author (The programme is so simple, you don't need it); he has
turned to do something else!

For automatic, scheduled nightly backup of My Documents and Favourites, I
use Replicator:
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp
Again, another solidly reliable free software.  Thoroughly worthy of the
highest praise, as is the above gem.

These may not be as sophisticated as the one suggested but they serve the
purpose.  I can recommend these two to those on tight budget.

-- 
Lin Chung
[Replace "the Water Margin" with "ntlworld" for e-mail].