I want to make an image of the hard drive so that if something goes wrong I can just put in the disc and restore it to like new. What do you recommend? Or is there such a thing?
another great tool is VMWare and VMWare Converter. VM Converter will take a live snapshot of your OS while its in use and make an image of it. then you can save it and use it as a backup.
I use it to make backup images of my server. Should server 1 die on me, VmWare is running already and server 2 which is on VMware will pick up instantly. Only slight problem is depending on how often you make the backup is how up to date yout files will be. But still, you will be up and running faster than a reinstall. And ofcourse none of this will work if you dont back it up somewhere else.