When you're looking to create a truly reliable backup then there's no substitute for disc imaging. The technology effectively clones your entire hard drive, which means you don't have to worry about building complex rules about file types, or remember to point the program at the right folders any more. It just backs up your entire drive in one go.

Hard drive imaging is very simple to carry out, then, and there's no better advertisement for that than O&O DiskImage 3 Express. While similar programs drown you in confusing drive maps, file system details and other complications, this one delivers just a single toolbar with only five options. (And that includes "Upgrade" and "Help" buttons.)

If you want to start a backup then click the first toolbar button, Create Image. Tell the program where you'd like to save your image and it'll begin the backup.

If you need to make use of a backup then click the second toolbar button, Restore.

And if you need to know more a saved image - when was it made, what does it contain - then click the third option for more details.

Backup programs really don't get any more straightforward than this, but O&O DiskImage 3 Express does have a significant limitation that you need to bear in mind. It doesn't provide a bootable disc to let you restore a system partition (you'll need to upgrade to get that), so if Windows or your hard drive becomes corrupted then you won't be able to access your backups to undo the damage.

O&O DiskImage Professional includes all the features of the Express edition, and adds the ability to restore the system partition, making it a very capable and complete backup and disaster recovery tool. Not bad, considering it costs a mere £19.99. Meanwhile businesses might prefer the DiskImage Server Edition (£179), which allows administrators to remotely install and create images within a network directly from their workstations. Both versions can be ordered from the O&O web site at www.oo-software.com.