The difference between simply backing up your data versus using full system images is that with full system images you can completely restore your system to the exact state of when it was backed up to an image. The image backs up the state of your operating system, all of the data on the hard drives, and all of the programs installed with their settings maintained. Backup software that creates images essentially creates takes a snapshot of your system to restore to later.

The three main contenders in the Backup Imaging arena are Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, and StorageCraft's ShadowProtect. The main advantage of True Image and ShadowProtect is that they can restore your system to another computer with different hardware. Restoring to dissimilar hardware isn't always foolproof however, we have had the highest success rates using ShadowProtect and definitely reccomend it to our clients before the other solutions.

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