Hi,
Before using Norton Ghost you have to boot from the Ghost CD and make sure it will work with your system. If you just install it and expect it to work that may not happen. Especially if the partition tables aren't up to snuff etc.
The instuctions with Ghost tell you what to do. It's important to follow those instructions because if the boot-up CD doesn't work then the restore process will not work either.
If the testing phase of Norton Ghost doesn't work then find out why before installing it or your system will be inoperable.
There are many ways to keep a backup system. I also use Steve's suggestion and have a few multi-boot configurations. I like to boot to another partition/operating system and backup the good working partition. This is easy because the files aren't locked. Usually I backup to a NTFS drive and assign the directory that's backing up as compressed. Before backup up the good windows system I clean it up by removing all the temp files, recent links & all network cache. You can delete the complete "temporary internet files" folder because whenever the program runs it will create a new one. MS Explorer, Opera or Firefox will all re-create the new cache directory you have assigned in the setup parameters when they execute. So I only backup the 3 important directories for windows. That's my manual method of backing up.
There are a few of other programs in use by programmers to take snapshots of the programs while running and de-bugging. I think the easiest to use is Ghost because you can always pull the good configuration on a partition and re-boot to it's clone. Actually the program Ghost will do what I am doing manually.
It's a shame we have to do this with windows. My son hasn't rebooted his MAC in 4 months. I tell him he should anyway. Just to clean up the temp files but the MAC runs a background process that purges the system. MAC's also have their flaws. Like expensive software. I'm hoping that with MAC now using the Intel processor that many windows x86 programmers can port their code to the new MAC's. This will lower the software prices for mac's. I can't say that Mac's are better. They simply have better fault protection for the software programs because they are running a unix based kernel. All software programs have flaws & bugs. I find Mac's on the boring side. I still like the old command prompt interface etc. Windows systems are inexpensive. It's nice to go to a local store, purchase something and install it. (reboot of course
)
There is also one important point when installing a multi-boot system with XP. You should boot from the CD and install from the CD. If you launch a new/additional installtiion of XP from within an operating system the program creates a link to the system your in under your user's directory. When you boot to the other operating system those files are locked and you can't backup the system completely because those users files are locked. So when you boot to the new/other system it has the files on the old/other system locked because you installed it by running setup from within another op system. One needs to boot from the CD for a completely isolated new multi-boot op system.
MD
That looks like one I'd like to have, but as usual the price tag is probably out of my reach right now. Any program that works like that has got to be expensive...