Back up twice with Ghost, and keep two separate ghost files. Keep your data files separate from your system files, and only ghost the system files. I have used it with total success (complete format C and re-install in 15 minutes) but another time I tried the ghost file was corrupted and I had to do it the hard way. I move all data files I want to keep (including my psts) into my "My Documents" file in separate folders, and then back them up to separate sectors on separate hard drives as tey are now too big to go onto CD and I ahve not got around to nuying a dual layer DVD writer yet.