Best strategy here is to always image your system before you upgrade; recovery from a failed upgrade will take only minutes instead of hours, just so you know. Much less frustration for everyone that way. Using restore does work, but not as well as an image. An image can also completely recover from an active virus infection; no trace of that infection will be found after an image restore.
I am sorry users posting here have had the problems they have had. I use Norton Ghost to image; there are other free imaging programs if you wish to use them.
EDIT: Fixed typo.
Hi mchain -- thanks for the advice about Imaging -- as a matter of interest I know you use Norton ghost -- but do you know of a good Free Imagining software -- as all I have done before is use restore 
-- and to be fair -- its been a fairly fast full restore as I am on win 7 pro ---indecently ----- I would want to use this to store offline with a bootable DVD etc -- and this might sound like a daft comment but as my HD is 1 TB ---- will I have to use more than one DVD as each DVD is only 4.6 GB !!!! -- the reason I want to store off line is not only for security but also to avoid the problem not being able to get it I E --- via internet if my crash effects my internet connection I can not get the back up
As to all the other comments here I want to thank everyone ---- for taking there time to give feed back and advice -- as a newbe -- a site like this is a god send -- and if I spot any other problems here -- ( as I will be coming back quite regularly from now on )---that ring a bell for me -- I will defiantly -- tell them how I got around it -- and hope it helps them as much as you all have helped me
@ MARIO 58,
Imaging a drive will pay enormous dividends for the future. For example, should your hard drive ever fail or die, you can use a previously restored image to place that image on a new hard drive to replace the old, and be back up and running in minutes, as I said before. It is also possible to clone an existing good hard drive to new just for backup purposes.
As for free imaging programs, see here:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-drive-imaging-program.htmhttp://www.pchelpforum.com/xf/threads/backup-and-imaging-software.68844/#post373602http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Ddrescuehttp://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-10469489-285/free-backup-utility-outshines-windows-7s-built-in-disk-imager/Direct link to todo easeus backup software:
http://www.todo-backup.com/backup-resource/partition-backup/ghost-windows-7-hard-drive.htmhttp://Some ot the links above are just for informational purposes only. For example, link to c|net.com should not be used to download easeus software, as c|net downloader can give PUP's (possibly unwanted software) for the user if they are not wary and watch for such when installing software gotten from there. Always best to go directly to the vendor's site and get what you want from there. Reason c|net does this is for additional (advertising) revenue.
So, research what you are interested in, and go from there.
Personally, I have never used Acronis backup, but heard is very good at what it does.
dd_rescue is for hard drives that have crashed and have bad sectors on them.
EDIT: Forgot to mention you can use a second internal hard drive just for the express purpose of placing created images on that drive; images are not the actual size of the drive (1TB) but are exact images only of the current snapshot size of the data present on that drive at the moment the image was created. If the size of the data is only 8-10 GB, then the file is usually compressed, and will result in an image of only 6-8 GB. Your mileage will vary according to the original size of the data being backed up.
You can also use dvd's to back up; a dual-layer dvd will provide twice the capacity. An external USB hard drive will be faster and will do the same thing, provided the software you choose will support these operations.
