Backing up a hard drive.

The information below is from various web sites sources whose URLs are also listed.

Windows has a built-in backup utility that works fairly well.
It doesn't mirror (make a complete image copy) of your hard drive; 
however, for maintaining backups of all of your documents, photos, music, etc. 
it does work pretty well.
 
Here's a couple of links explaining its use:
 
How to install the Windows backup utility:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q302894
 
How to use the Windows backup utility:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx
 
Here's one method of cloning/mirroring a hard drive:
CloneGenius 2008   
of security and productivity plans. You will realize that having a mirror image of each PC can save hours of time maybe even days restoring a system should the PC hard disk drive fail. You will always need exact duplicates of their entirehard disk drive, including the primary boot partition where all system files and settings are stored-as well as data… 
Updated: Sep 29, 2007 | Rating: 0 | Author: CloneGenius | Freeware
CloneGenius 2008 
http://3d2f.com/download/0-92-clonegenius-free-download.shtml 
CloneGenius is an advanced disaster recovery and backup solution for your PC. Wizards guide you through creating an exact copy - or backup image - of your hard drive. CloneGenius makes it easy to copy everything from your hard drive to a new one . 

 Updated Sep 29, 2007 11:51:42 
Licence Freeware 
Status New Release 
Languages English 
Tags Disk Clone Backup System Restore 
OS Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows CE, Unix, Palm OS, Mac OS 
Email support@clonegenius.com 
Author CloneGenius http://3d2f.com/download/0-92-clonegenius-free-download.shtml 

Description:
   Why should you backup and restore your system partition? 
   Because you will need to restore your disk to ensure that even if a user does, or infects a computer with a virus, the computer will be restored to a clean, working state. The restore process is the safest approach to resolve problems, when a computer shows signs of malfunctioning, or every time a user logs off. Creating a full and complete disk image is the best way to create a backup of a system disk. 
   There is no such system that is immune from damage. Thus backup traditionally has been thought of an insurance policy. Today it's also part of security and productivity plans. You will realize that having a mirror image of each PC can save hours of time maybe even days restoring a system should the PC hard disk drive fail. You will always need exact duplicates of their entire hard disk drive, including the primary boot partition where all system files and settings are stored-as well as data partitions in order to ensure they have a complete backup that can restore the drive to working order. 

   > Under these conditions: 
   1. Want to restore from a "clean", master image, which should be in full working order and should have been swept for viruses. 
   2. After misconfigure something, downloads inappropriate content or programs 
   3. You may use disk cloning to upgrade to a new hard disk. 
   4. You may create a comprehensive backup of their operating system and installed software. 

   CloneGenius provides advanced backup and recovery for your PC, protects your data by making a backup of your hard drive's contents - without having to reinstall your Windows. CloneGenius is a comprehensive disk imaging solution for home and small office users, enhanced with Drive Image technology, suitable for both beginners and advanced users. From disk to disk, partition to partition Clone or Recover any format of data: MP3, Video, and Picture… 
Short tags:
Disk, Clone, Backup, System, Restore 
 
Here's an older method of mirroring a hard drive:
You can use twindisk to mirror your hard drive. 
The executable can ber found at the top of the page here: 
http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~madorsky/twindisk/ 
and the instructions can be found here: 
http://www.softhelp.cc/TwinDiskx.html
 
An article from http://searchwarp.com/swa46048.htm
The computer that you use has a hard drive in it, which stores everything that you put on it, plus all the settings that you prefer. You can then imagine how difficult it would be if you were to lose all of your data and have to set everything back up again. That is why a full hard drive backup is the preferred method of data backup, because every last bit of data is stored and not even your daylight savings time preference will be forgotten. There are many ways to make a perfect mirror image of your hard drive, and some are better then others. Let’s talk about the various strategies and find out what will best suit you.
 
The first way to make a perfect copy of your hard drive, quickly and seamlessly, is to use good hard drive image software. A great example of this type of software is True Image from Acronis, which is complete imaging software that helps anyone make a perfect image of their hard drive and save it anywhere, even the hard drive if they want to. Of course there are also many other types of software on the market, and all are just as unique too. Just be sure to choose a good one, because if you don’t, it could end up being the biggest mistake you ever made on your computer.
If you are a little more technically inclined, and have some knowledge of installing computer parts, then you could always use the RAID method. RAID, which stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, requires you to install another new hard drive and can be used to make a perfect mirror image of your current hard drive, which will always be up to date by the second. There are many different levels to RAID, but if you were using it for hard drive backup purposes, you would use level 1. Level one is called disk mirroring or duplexing, and this level will write data to both hard drives simultaneously, so when something happens to one there will always be the other one to fall back on.
The final way to make a copy of your hard drive is to backup everything individually yourself. This is of course the hardest and most time consuming strategy, but is preferred by some experts, because you can choose what to save. If you do use this method, you need to make sure you back up your registry files, system files and other important files and folders that you have. You might also want to save your entire software program folders, as they might contain important data related to the program that you want to definitely save. If you are using Windows XP, there is a backup utility that you can use for free, located in your “System tools" folder. Go there by clicking “Start" on your bottom toolbar, then go to “All Programs", and then “Accessories". You should now see a folder labeled “System tools" and once that is open, click on the “Backup" program.
Now that you have gotten some ideas on how to create a perfect backup of your hard drive, you should know where to save that backup. There is always the option to save your hard drive image backup on the hard drive itself, but most likely this will not work for everyone because of space limitations. Also, if the hard drive should be literally destroyed by a fire, tornado or some other act of nature, then the backup would be destroyed with it. That is why I recommend backups, especially hard drive images, be stored on a DVD-R, external hard drive or a device like a Zip drive. Then just be sure to backup once every week, or month, and store the backup in a secure location. Now you have a perfect copy of ALL of your data, and it is secure from this dangerous world.
 
And, here's a file that will show you what is stored where on your hard drive:
free download locations for TreeSize Personal 5.2.2:
http://www.jam-software.com/treesize/TreeSizePersonal-Demo.exe
http://www.jam-software.de/treesize/TreeSizePersonal-Demo.exe
http://www.jamsoft.net/treesize/TreeSizePersonal-Demo.exe