hiya,
I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions regarding backup-software that's relatively easy to use

the windows system recovery thingy and the backup tool are both nice and all but I figure some standalone software has probably more features...

Hi,

There are many backup tools available, some freeware and mostly shareware.
You can find some freeware tools here:
Freeware Backup tools

You can find more tools here:
Shareware Backup tools

Symantec has a backup tool called Norton GoBack. Here is a link:
Norton GoBack

Cheers,
Paramesh.

__________________

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.

i think he might search for something like norton ghost to make backups, right? ghost v10 has got some nice lil features:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000B3KDGM

Thanks a lot for your help and sorry that I haven't been online for a while. I got Norton Ghost and so far I am very happy with it. I just read about Norton Save & Restore and I am now wondering what the difference between Ghost and Save & Restore is?

Save and Restore also allows you to make backups from just specific files and folders that you select, instead of your entire harddisk.

Really worth it, if you are working on a lot of files that need backing up frequently. That way, you can save on tons of discspace. (Just don't forget to also make full backups every now and then...)

Brilliant, thanks!

I did go and get Save and Restore - and it works a charm. Now I can finally make daily backups without wasting tons of time and memory due to a careful selection of files that need to be copied frequently. (e-mails, mostly ...)

The best part, of course, are the scheduled backups - knowing me I would forget doing them if I only had my brain to remember that task.

I'm a previous Norton Ghost user but switched to Acronis True Image Home. I do a daily incremental backup which has saved me many times. Only takes a couple of minutes a day to do an incremental after you do the first full backup which takes me about 15 minutes. You can restore either entire images or individual files. I recommend a second hard drive installed on your computer rather then a separate partition on your C drive. I have an extra 300 gig internal and a 400 external on my computer.

I lost a lot of data once when I my harddrive got totally trashed. I learned my lesson, though, because prior to that I had not been in the habit of backing things up. I regularly back up now. I personally have been using StompSoft's PC BackUpwww.stompsoft.com It's not freeware, but it is reasonably-priced, so you might want to consider it or the other suggestions that previous posters gave.

I believe Acronis True Image Home is $10 cheaper then the Stomp software unless I'm looking at the wrong Stomp product. Acronis is $50.
I have seen Norton Ghost 10 recently advertised for free after two rebates if dealing with rebates isn't a problem.