I have had two disastrous computer crashes in the past eight months. I work from home, so when my computer dies, it's bad news. Both times, the culprit was Windows OS and a corrupt file. In both cases, I had to re-install Windows. I never want to do that again.

I took an older 80-gigabyte hard drive and installed Windows XP. I also put my applications on it. The next time I crash, I'll just swap hard drives. I'll be able to fix the problem at my leisure. I thought this was a great idea for people who need their computers every day.

Actually, that sounds like it would work. You're probably not the first person to do it. But you're the first I've heard of.

That's probably because there's an easier way. Instead of making a mirror, you make an image of your main drive. There are a few programs that do this: Norton Ghost ($70), Acronis True Image ($50) and Paragon Drive Backup ($30).

Imaging programs make an exact image of your hard drive. If you have a crash, you simply load the image. It works exactly as it did when you recorded it.

There is an obvious problem with your solution, and with imaging: Your personal files are not protected when you update or create them. Those are probably the most important files you have. So, in addition to your image, you need a daily backup.

Is your 80-gigabyte drive installed in the computer? If not, I would do so. Install it as the secondary drive. You could use Windows' backup program. Put your backups on the second

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drive, too.

If you use an imaging program, you could run it once a month. Then, do your backups from there. So, you would discard your old image and backups every month, and start over.

We've made good use of drive images at our offices. We've needed them a few times, and they have always worked well.

Windows re-installations are a bummer. I empathize. Thanks for sharing your solution.

It's good idea to check on your hard drive's health. I have free programs that will examine your hard drive.

Need help installing a hard drive? Check out my handy dandy free tip.

Do you need help with your backups? Check these tips:

Looking for a fail-safe backup? Tired of Windows Backup. Try Cobain.