using Acronis true image on my system and its saved my ars 2x now.

Same here

Sesq/others - many thanks for the helpful replies. I will review my backups and am sure I'll improve them thanks to your input.

For those that have FSX running like a charm, please do the following and have worry-free FSX'ing...1. DEFRAG your computer system.2. Make an IMAGE back-up of your drive(s). This is easy if you have W7 Premium or Ultimate. Go to BACK UP and select on the top left of the page; Create a System Image.3. Run REGEDIT and then EXPORT a REGISTRY image file to your document folder. Name it REGISTRY BACKUP Image. Drag a copy of this file over to your ARCHIVE/BACK-UP hard drive..............................Congratulations...you now have a full Computer and Flight Simulation Insurance Policy! Boy...are you clever and smart for this!!! :( [/b]

I don't know if anyone is still up on this thread.As previously posted I have recently installed Win 7 (Professional 64), so last night I tried making a system image of my FSX (installed on a separate hard drive to my system) to a USB drive. I was able to do this, however I could not stop the drive that contains Win 7 also being imaged (I could not uncheck it in the setup for the imaging).What I was trying to do is to image just the FSX drive and then also export the registry, so that I can restore FSX to it's (near) pristine condition. I searched the web and found some reference to a "Backup and Restore Control Panel" that might allow for a more advanced selection of the drives tro be imaged including the syetm drive, however I could never find it on my PC- maybe it's only for a diferent flavor of Win 7??To the OP- were you referring to imaging the system drive as well as FSX, or have you found a way around that?Thanks, Bruce.