What backup software do you use/recommend?

[Tripper11]

I just bought(given, Happy B-Day to me!) a 500GB Seagate External Hard drive that came with software for backing up. Unfortunately, the software doesn't work. I have called them a couple times to no avail.
Rather then dump a decent drive for lack of software I thought I would ask here to see what some use and could recommend to back up all my crap on a regular basis.
I'm running Vista Home Premium(keep yer comments to yourself, it is what it is! ;-))
I know Vista has back up and restore, but I tend to ask first before I mess things up!
So any advice recommends? Oh free is best..obviously!

Thanks in advance!

[DaveJ]

1. I think a lot of folks like Acronis

http://www.acronis.com/ I've never used it myself but I've hear good things.

As with most software, I'd recommend getting the free trial first to make sure it works ok.

[Jazzgirl]

2. Latest version of Acronis.

It does a great job backing up drives.

[JPettus]

3. Again, Acronis

You can also use the True Echo Workstation to create bootable media and when you boot to the CD you've created, you can make an image of your hard drive on your external, so if something catastrophic happens, you can restore the entire hard drive just the way it was when you created the image.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Acronis rocks.

Unlike Ghost, it was designed with the aim that real people could make real backups in minutes, leaving them more time to do other things and be productive. I really think Ghost was designed for fiddling with Ghost. Acronis is also reliable to a fault, something that sometimes eludes Ghost. Perhaps because all the fiddling needed gets done wrong.

Backup Software should not require an advanced college degree to use. It should just...backup. Oh, and restore. Acronis restores very nicely, too.

[Jersey Devil]

5. Acronis - just set it and forget it

I have it automatically do a complete backup of my hard drive to an external hard drive at 3 am every night and when I had a crash it completely recovered my hard drive with no problems.