Use Hard Drive Imaging Software to make a backup of your operating system. I use Norton Ghost and I have found this to be a saviour. The program makes a a"picture" of the hard drive on a second drive. This picture can be used to restore your hard drive should a major problem arise. For example, I have had a number of system crashes that prevented Windows XP from loading. This is a nightmare since it can be very difficult to solve the problem. In the past I would have to nuke the drive and reinstall the operating system (not a big deal) and then reinstall all of my software (big deal) and reset my settings (a real pain in the butt). Now I start Norton Ghost and within 30 minutes I have a system running exactly as it was when I last copied the drive image. Check out the Radified Guide to Norton Ghost for step by step instructions.
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