Acronis without doubt. It's saved me a couple of times. Especially useful if you have a PC which came with Windows and all sorts of stuff pre-installed and you don't have easy-to-use recovery CDs (if any).
Acronis will do selective backups and restores so you can choose not to restore data. You can also restore single lost files.
You may consider partitioning your disk so that you can keep a partition just for the operating system and drivers. Acronis can then be used just for that partition. Keeping the data away from Drive C means that even if you have to use Acronis you definitely won't get earlier versions of your data restored. You can also install new software elsewhere, but you will have to re-install anything you've installed since the last backup as the registry and other stuff will be wrong.
A word of warning. Partitioning Drive C is not without risks. Make sure the software you use will definitely deal with drive C correctly. Watching the partitioning is not for the faint hearted! Partition Magic is OK but rather expensive for (hopefully) one use.
If you do this, get Acronis first. Back up C: disk then partition it, then back up the C: partition straight away.
Acronis will do selective backups and restores so you can choose not to restore data. You can also restore single lost files.
You may consider partitioning your disk so that you can keep a partition just for the operating system and drivers. Acronis can then be used just for that partition. Keeping the data away from Drive C means that even if you have to use Acronis you definitely won't get earlier versions of your data restored. You can also install new software elsewhere, but you will have to re-install anything you've installed since the last backup as the registry and other stuff will be wrong.
A word of warning. Partitioning Drive C is not without risks. Make sure the software you use will definitely deal with drive C correctly. Watching the partitioning is not for the faint hearted! Partition Magic is OK but rather expensive for (hopefully) one use.
If you do this, get Acronis first. Back up C: disk then partition it, then back up the C: partition straight away.