Backup software/external drive?

I've got my new PC up and running, but the one thing I lack is backup software and an external hard drive. I have a 128GB SSD as my C:\ drive, which has Windows, CoH, and a couple other things on it, and then I have a 1TB HD as my E:\ drive, which has my data and some other programs on it. Any recommendations?

My last backup software was Norton Ghost, and that worked very well for me. I had one massive crash and successfully restored my whole PC. But I didn't know whether the latest version works well with SSDs vs. HDs, nor am I used to having multiple drives to backup and possibly restore. Also wondering if the backup software that comes with Windows 7 is sufficient to do what Ghost does so that all I really need is the external hard drive on which to put the files.

MaximumPC has written up a couple of articles on the subject that might help ya decide.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea..._ultimate_back
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea...up_and_restore

The backup software with Windows 7 is far, far better than what we had through XP (full version was Backup Exec v.6 ... which was out in the NT 3.5 days. I know. I did support for it.) That and an external drive will do quite well in most cases.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Bravo on actually thinking about back-ups. Someone in my office recently had the hard drive fail on their home computer. I asked if she had back-ups. She said no, because the computer didn't have anything important except for photos and some documents. I said, "So it DID have something important."

Anyway, I use the paid version of WinZip. It has nice scheduling and automation capability and allows me to create encrypted back-ups since I store a copy off-site, in case the house burns down.

Yes, I'm paranoid about back-ups. As a result, I have NEVER lost more than an hours worth or work, either at home of work. Automate the process as much as possible so you can't forget or neglect it.

Been reading up on Windows 7. Is a "system image" the same thing as what Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image provides, or do they provide a "disk image" instead?

Since I have two hard drives -- a 128GB SSD and a 1TB HD -- what I'd really like to be able to do is say "select all" and just create a full image of my PC. Or I could select each drive individually and make a full image of each drive, but I'd like both images saved to the same external hard drive -- I think Norton Ghost on my old PC was able to do this, since I was able to save multiple backups to the same external hard drive. Is Windows 7 able to do this? I read somewhere that if you do a system image, you can only include with the image the drive on which Windows 7 is located. Since things like my temporary folders and emails and other data, etc., is on my 1TB HD, I'm not sure if that would work.

Or maybe a System Image of the 128GB SSD plus a regular Windows backup of the HD is all I need? And could I keep both of these on the same external hard drive?

Here's what I wound up going with: A Seagate 500GB external HD, with Windows 7 Backup saving a complete system image of both my 128GB SSD and my 1TB HD to the disk whenever I feel the urge to take a backup. Only snag I've run into so far is that Windows 7 Backup seems to save the system image you're currently making over the previous system image you made, rather than keeping the old while saving the new (even though the system image is datestamped). I suppose it's possible to rename the old system image directory so that Windows 7 Backup won't overwrite it...will have to try that next time.