Not all the best software can be had for free (which may surprise you if you regularly read our columns!). Nevertheless, a good piece of hard drive imaging software will very quickly pay for itself – assuming that your time = money!

This software will allow you to easily take an exact replica of your entire hard disk(s), or specific partitions, and store them in a compressed file virtually anywhere you choose – a DVD-R, another drive in the same system, an external hard drive, even a drive in another networked computer.

Obviously this is a great way to back up your files and settings – much more comprehensive than XP’s system restore, though by using an image in this way, you would lose any files created after the image was taken.

By far the best way to use imaging software is right after you install / re-install Windows. Install hardware drivers, apply service packs, do the necessary windows updates – even install commonly used programs, then take the image. Should you subsequently have a major computer issue, just restore the image of your C: drive!

Which software should you go for? My favourite is the excellent Acronis True Image, just $25 at Newegg ([http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832200204])