BleepingComputer.com: Is external hard drive my solution?

Hi.My PC was corrupted recently.I saved it,but now I wish to have a back up should my hard drive fail,or I have to reinstall windows.I plan to clone my entire hard drive to an external hard drive.
Question - I presume that should I have to reinstall windows,once my new install was up and running,I could transfer the cloned hard drive back onto my internal hard drive?My objective is to regain my present set up as quickly as possible.
Is my plan the best way to proceed?
Thanks in advance.

Yes, cloning a drive is a good idea. I would prefer to have a clone than a Windows OS install disk.
A cloned drive can simply be switched out in a matter of a few minutes or less depending on one's experience.
While better than an installation CD it will still lack in changes made to the installed drive during the time between
cloning and replacing the supposedly failed drive. Which could be one day or years.

A cloned drive can only be used on the computer it was cloned from or one that is exactly the same.

Windows 7 makes it simple to image and do scheduled backups. The image can be used to reinstall on an installed drive
or on a new drive.

There are numerous free backup, imaging and cloning software programs that can be used with XP, Vista and 7.

Cloning requires using a drive that is the same size or larger to put the clone on. Many images and backups can be
placed on one drive.

This post has been edited by buddy215: 12 February 2012 - 03:34 PM