This (password storage and recovery) really is only a very small part of what a backup and recovery strategy is about.
I use hard disk imaging software (there are many solutions out there) and it makes an exact image of what is on a partition or hard drive. Theses drive images can be stored on a second hard drive, be that internal or external source.
I do a disk image backup every week and keep copies of the last 6 backups. If I experience a problem that is likely to take me longer to resolve that restoring the last image backup, then I restore the image.
well i store very little on my OS hard drive and a format of my pc and a full install of everything only takes about half an hour at most. All my important documents and other files (such as drivers and programs for after a fresh windows install) are stored on an external hard drives which i only connect when needed and USB flash drives.
