imo; ghosting an image of the whole drive is wasteful;
Having the OPTION to ghost your entire disk at a moments notice and as needed IMHO is invaluable. Not to mention preserving a filesystem when the fact is you don't know if it's corrupted or not (so simple file/folder recovery can leave your backup incomplete as it never backups unallocated sectors). And when you ghost (at least with Acronis) you have the choice of
=> Only ghosting allocated sectors (other then pagefile, etc. i.e. a SMART ghost!)
=> Telling it to do a sector-by-sectory copy (with compression of course) when you don't know what the heck the problem is but you sure as heck know you want to preserve an image of your disk before it crashes or who-knows-what
(1) You should have the Windows Install disk and it can be used to create a runnable system; ergo backup of \Windows over and over and over is a waste of time and media space
(2) You should have the install CD for all purchased software or at least a copy
of any downloaded software: ergo backups of \Program Files over and over and over is ....
I find what someone
should have and what someone
does have are two different things. Especially if talking about a system that's been up and running and collecting software installs for several years.
IMHO
Another important consideration in all this is cost. Assess $$ vs. grief/aggravation/uncertainty/potential task of reinstall all software, applications, file settings, drivers, etc. etc. etc.
To have the covenience and option of ghosting when / as needed is priceless. Added to the fact you also get a RESCUE CD to use for backup/recovery when your computer won't boot and you still get the disk imagef/files/folders backup and recovery options all for a price that translates into a real world cost of $50USD.. Has save my hide and MUCH time (and helped others i know) do be well worth the $$. But whatever works best for someone. is always a personal choice.
/* EDIT */
P.S. I'm talking full disk recovery with a couple mouse clicks, walk away for an hour, and come back to a perfectly restored disk vs. MANY hours and days HOURs reinstall and update and do everything by hand
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One final note.. For a different way to look at this issue
How many times in these forums have people have corrupted/BSODing/non-booting/crashed Windows systems when the answer is "Reformat your hard drive, reinstall Windows and start over from scratch"
How nice if the answer could always just be: "Do a few mouse clicks and restore your disk image to your last ghost backup. You only need reinstall your machine from your last snapshot. Then you're done!"