Instead of Norton Ghost you could use Acronis Disk Image to make an image of the system drive. If something goes wrong, in about 5 minutes you could have your system right back

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If you want to backup software settings and files/folders, you could use Genie Backup manager. I'm using it to make a backup of my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles, Dreamweaver sites, Photoshop settings and actions, trillian profile etc.. 'cause it has real big database of free plugins you can download from their website. I use it to make everyday backups of the partition with sensitive data. Very usefull.