I've used both without any problems on both XP and Vista.
Many prefer Acronis since it is a little easier to use.

In XP
IDE drives: Acronis True Image 9 or 10 and Ghost 2003, 10, 12 are
all acceptable)
Sata Drives (Acronis 10 and Ghost 12 are suggested)

In Vista(Acronis 10 or Ghost 12 are required for Vista compatibility)

Note: each requires an understanding of the tool, drives, partitions and
of course a spare drive or partition to store the image. You should
expect about 40-60% compression in size when imaging an o/s. A
partition with only pictures or music will require almost the same size
since those are already compressed.

...winston
MS-MVP Windows Live Mail

"jrsyangl" wrote in message
news:sPKAi.20$9T5.5@trndny02...
Thanks for the useful information. I have used BackItUp, Nero, Drive
Image, and lately Retrospect with mixed success. I will look into
Ghost and Acronis. Sorry if it is somewhat off-topic, but any
preferences between the two?

Lou

"...winston" wrote in message
...
Wish I could add some comments on the the use of MsBackup.
I've been a fan of imaging software for years.
Current imaging programs(Ghost 12 and Acronis True Image 10) can
image an entire drive, clone the drive/partition to new, spare, or
replacement drive, backup folders/subfolders files and more. Those
capabilities surpass anything that MsBackup includes.

The nature of the problem: The Norton recycle bin stop logging the
deleted files thereby unavailable for retrieval.

--
...winston
MS-MVP Windows Live Mail