I'd opt for Acronis True Image instead of Norton Ghost.

One issue for all imaging is the potential loss of personal
data. Since XP stores your profile data on the same volume
with XP if you use an Image to recover from an earlier date
your personal data ( Image date to present ) will be lost.
The way I avoid that is to have a separate partition to store
all my personal data. This way any recovery only restores
XP & Applications and the data isn't overwritten. Takes a
little work to redirect/setup but very valuable long-term.

<isotobin@identicalimagepleez.org> wrote in message
news:Z8ednaBYKaS4lerYnZ2dnUVZ_omdnZ2d@giganews.com ...
> I'm tired of complete reinstalls once a year. What's the best program?
> I've read pros and cons on Newegg.com.
>
> Do they truly back up the entire OS, registry and programs to DVD?
> If so, how do they shutdown the protected files and system files that are
> currently running?