Back Up using Vista Control Panel

I backup up data to a remote Western Digital drive using the Vista Backup
Everything seems fine. I selected to backup all files on the "Back Up
Files" menu except TV Shows, Compressed Files and Additional Files. My
question is, If this hard drive dies and no longer lets me access it (which
is what happened to my last XP computer) can I save registry and all other
files that will let me restore to another hard drive with the least amount
of hassle? Also is there anyway I can save profiles and passwords and the
like. Ideally, I'd like to backup my entire hard drive and be able
reinstall it to a new hard drive if this one dies. When my XP hard drive
died I had my documents saved but had a real problem with this other
information. Thanks in advance for you advice.

Until Windows 7 is released, the only way is to clone your drive, using a
third party partition manager.
"Boot It NG" is free for 30 days and is one of the easiest to use.
"Ease US" is another good one that is free.
There are others available also but names escape me at this time.
Do a Google search for them.
Clone your drive to an external drive to be safe.



"Carol & Ray Reilly" <reillt2@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:#TJc3frFKHA.4968@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> I backup up data to a remote Western Digital drive using the Vista Backup
> Everything seems fine. I selected to backup all files on the "Back Up
> Files" menu except TV Shows, Compressed Files and Additional Files. My
> question is, If this hard drive dies and no longer lets me access it
> (which
> is what happened to my last XP computer) can I save registry and all other
> files that will let me restore to another hard drive with the least amount
> of hassle? Also is there anyway I can save profiles and passwords and the
> like. Ideally, I'd like to backup my entire hard drive and be able
> reinstall it to a new hard drive if this one dies. When my XP hard drive
> died I had my documents saved but had a real problem with this other
> information. Thanks in advance for you advice.