Disc Imaging is the "process", not the software name. OK...here's the 3 types of "backing up" stuff you can do with your computer. Maybe this will help clarify the different "processes" available to you:1. Windows Restore Points: Creating these (either manually of automatically) can allow you to "get back" to a previous configuration of your computer that worked prior to something "going wrong", like installing an updated driver then finding out it doesn't work right for you. The problem with only doing Windows Restore Points is that if you lose your hard drive where Windows is installed (or Windows itself just craps out on you), you can't access the Restore function anymore. Windows is gone, and so are your Restore Points. Plan on doing a full, manual re-install of Windows then, with the added fun of re-installing everything else you had before also (programs, addons, driver updates...can take a LONG time to get back to where you were).2. "Data Backups": These are backups of PORTIONS of things on your hard drives...downloaded purchased programs, stuff from your My Documents folders, etc. Stuff you don't want to "lose" if your hard drive crashes on you. Doing these kind of backups is essential, but they have nothing to do with restoring your ENTIRE computer to a previous state. For instance, if you backed up a bunch of Word documents, your hard drive could crash, you then reinstall Windows and MS Office, then just put the backed-up documents back in your My Documents folder. KEY again here...you can NOT restore an entire computer to a previous state with these kind of backups.3. Disk Image: This is a COMPLETE backup of your ENTIRE computer...the Operating System, Registry entries, drivers installed, all programs, all data in folders...EVERYTHING. You use "Disk Imaging Software" to make these. They create a "Disk Image" of what you tell it to make. You can save this image to either one or more CD/DVDs or an external hard drive. If your computer ever completely craps out on you (hard drive failure where the OS is loaded, virus attack that destroys data or messes up yur system, etc), you just take the "disk image" and re-install the WHOLE THING right back to your computer. If you lost a hard drive, you can simply get a new one and install EVERYTHING back to it...it will work just like your old hard drive then. You get an EXACT DUPLICATE of the computer you had when you made the last Disk Image. There is no having to re-install Windows, update drivers, re-install programs, tweak config files, reset video card parameters, re-install addons, etc. Instead of days or weeks getting everything back to where you were, it is done usually in less than 30 minutes.Disk Images are saved in a "compacted" format, so if you have 500GB of stuff on your hard drive, the Disk Image will take up much less room than that on a series of CDDVDs or an external drive.I use O&O Disk Image Pro 3. There are many other companies that also have software apps that do imaging. I'm not saying any one is better than any other...that's your call. But for the price of an external hard drive (or a few CDDVDs) and something like Disk Image Pro 3 (about $30), you should NEVER have to go through the pain of having to re-install Windows from scratch, along with everything else you had on your computer. That became obsolete numerous years ago. Doing regular Disk Images of your system as you continue to add stuff to it (or change hardware, drivers, etc) will always allow you to "get back to" where you were COMPLETELY in one step...without having to manually re-install anything.Hope this helped.FalconAF

Falcon,I took your advice and installed O&O Image Pro 3.My question is it gives 2 options for creating image.1 is storage and the other is right below that and I think that is the one I want.Which one do I want to use?Thanks,Ron

http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtop...amp;hl=managingJohn

John: Thanks much for posting this link. Really appreciate it. Al