As far as WinDriverBackup goes - the developer stopped offering it before we featured it in April 2008. We have a copy of the program and still offer it from our Freeware Hall of Fame. Make sure you don't download it from some of the other sites offering it, as many of those sites are not offering the original version of WinDriversBackup - many are now using the name WinDriversBackup to induce the user to download spyware, adware, etc.. You can download it directly from one of our servers if you'd like to try the freeware program WinDriversBackup by clicking this link.

For those of you who are interested in backing up your drivers (you might want to finish this article before you run off and download MaxDriver) you can get more information about and/or download DriverMax here. DriverMax is free, and free from adware and spyware. We have also, in the past, recommended this program.

As for the rest of your question. The best, in fact the only way to back up a computer properly is to back it all up using a drive-image backup program like Norton (GULP!) Ghost or Acronis True Image. Using a drive-image backup program not complicated but it is a bit different than using other kinds of backup software. But drive-image type backup programs can be used by most Windows users as long as they take some time and review the program's documentation. These are not programs you can just feel your way through. These are serious programs that perform a very important function. You'll want to read the help files to ensure that any drive-image backups you create with them are viable and complete. But, once you've mastered a drive-image type backup program you will not need driver backups or any other kind of backup software. And you will not need or even want a manufacturer's recovery disk.

It's simply a matter of choice. You can choose to backup things, piecemeal, folder-by-folder, file-by-file, and hope you've got all your important data backed up. If this is the kind of approach you choose then you will need a free program like DriverMax to backup all your drivers. Hunting around for drivers after you've reinstalled Windows is a time consuming and frustrating endeavor. Finding the correct drivers and then downloading and installing them can be quite a time-consuming and thankless task.

While drive-image backup programs are not free, they're worth twice the price you paid for them should you ever need to recover your computer. Recovery disks that come with new computers give you only one option and that option is to restore you computer to the state it was in the day you purchased it. This is better than nothing, but all the garbage that came with your computer (like trial versions, Norton, McAfee, music players, etc.) will be installed and you'll need to spend time removing all of the junk that your computer manufacturer loaded on your computer - i.e. stuff you probably don't want. And, remember, when you use a manufacturer's recovery disk, all your programs, files, photos, music - anything you've saved -and all of your settings will be deleted.

On the other hand, a drive-image backup, when incrementally updated daily, will restore your computer to exactly the state it was in at the time of your last backup. This means all your programs, drivers, files, photos, music, settings - everything, will be restored exactly as they were at the time of your last backup. After years and years of fooling around with partial backups, driver backups and email backups, we finally got smart and started using drive-image backups. And, we've actually used these drive-image backups to restore our computers several times. We were sold the very first time we had to use one of our drive-image backups. Rather than spending weeks (yes, it sometimes took us weeks to get our computers back to normal after a problem) getting everything back to normal again. Whereas by using our drive-image backup it took less than two hours to get our computers up and running. What a difference. We'd never be without drive-image backup software on our computers again!

Norton Ghost is an excellent program, but we cannot recommend it, for two reasons. We purchased Norton Ghost, then upgraded to Vista. Norton Ghost didn't work on Vista. Instead of offering us an upgrade to a new version of Ghost that worked on Vista, they wanted us to re-purchase the new version and just toss the old one. Not worth $70.00. And it just left another bad taste in our mouths for anything Norton. And the other reason is, Norton cannot leave a good program alone. Ghost was a program created by a different company - Norton bought Ghost from that company and started Nortonizing it. Eventually, if Ghost follows the Norton pattern, it will end up a bloated, resource-hogging, program. Speculation, to be sure, but Norton's propensity to take good programs and bloat them up, cannot be ignored.

So, now we're using Acronis True Image. It functions similar to Norton Ghost, and has an easier-to-understand program interface. It's a drive-image based backup system. It will take a few hours to complete you first drive-image backup, but once that is done, Acronis True Image 11 will automatically create incremental backups everyday (or at an interval of your choosing) without you having to remember to do it.

We highly recommend that you use an drive-image based backup program - rather than a hodgepodge, pieces-parts, type backup. Though not free, Acronis True Image 11 is $20 to $30 cheaper than Norton Ghost and does basically the same things. And, Acronis True Image offers a free trial so you can see if the program is right for your needs. Something anyone interested in venturing into drive-image backups needs to do. If you want to try Acronis True Image on your computer, you can download it directly from this link. We want to point out that we're an affiliate of Acronis True Image and we'll make a small commission if you decide to buy it. But, that is not why we recommend it. We use Acronis and have used it to restore our computers - and it worked beautifully. If you decide to buy Acronis True Image, it's $49.95 - and it's not a subscription, it's a one-time payment. If you ever have to use it, you'll think it's worth twice that much, you really will. You can buy it through our affiliate link, directly from Acronis - here.

If you're serious about keeping good backups and saving time if something should happen to your computer, you'll use a drive-image type backup program. When the times comes and you need to recover your computer, you'll be thankful you took our advice.