backup/recovery

[wdk40]

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hi-
i have a compaq presario 8000T. 250 GB hard drive (i think it's a western digital). i bought this from bestbuy about 1 1/2/ yrs ago. i don't have any cds for the software that is installed on this computer (like XP, Office, etc.). all this stuff came pre-installed.

i am not backing the drive up which is what I have questions about.

i would like to start a regular backup strategy. i want to be able to recover quickly if for some reason i can't boot from my current drive. i'd don't want to have to re-install everything. so i'm looking for suggestions.
- should i install another internal drive and backup to that?
- can i backup to an external drive?

any suggestions?????
thanks in advance ...

 

[Osiris]

Use Norton Ghost, That will make an image of your entire harddrive and if something does go wrong, installing this images take about 15 minutes or less depending on your system