The problem of running something under Windows XP is that you have to have XP actually booted up and working. Most serious problems either trash the operating system or make it something you don't want to run as it allowas a virus to spread even further. The Acronis programme works on the computer before an operating system can boot up. In a sense it becomes the operating system whilst it is running. Because it is an operating system with very limited objectives - copying a partition and saving it as a file or reading a file and writing the information as a new partition, either on a blank sector of your hard drive, or overwriting a corrupt partition - it can be run from a bootable CD.
I haven't used any "Mirror" backup programmes other than the Acronis one. I tried it because I got a trial copy on a computer magazine cover disc. The thing I like is that the rescue can be run from a bootable CD. You need Windows to run the initial setup and burning of the recovery CD, but once you have that it can be run without an operationg system on your computer. Burn a backup onto a CD or DVD and you can even remove your hard drive and replace with a blank one and Acronis will restore the original content onto the new drive.
Of course a DVD or CD can get trashed, or potentially degenerate over time, but it can't get infected with a virus at some later date as it is on a fixed medium.
Another plus point is that it copied tan image of the drive, so it doesn't matter what the drive actually contains. It could be data (all your photos/sound files) or a partition containing an operating system. It will back up a partition which has a version of Linux on it just as happily as one with Windows XP/ME/98 or whatever.
I like it because it is easy to use and very effective.
Quack!
Geoff.