If you're looking for the quickest possible PC backup then opt for a file-based tool. Tell it to back up the contents of your desktop, the Documents, Music and Pictures folders, and the whole process will probably be complete within a few minutes.

There's a reason why this kind of backup is so quick, of course - it doesn't save all the information you need. The emails, contacts, favourites, browser addons, fonts, drivers, application settings, user names, passwords, and everything else that makes your PC the system it is today. If your hard drive did ever crash then you might spend weeks trying to get everything back in working order.

Use Acronis True Image Personal 10 as your backup tool and it's a very different story. The program creates an image of your system partition (or any other you specify), then copies it to a second drive. This is much easier to use, as there's no need to create complex filters or specify the files and folders you'd like to back up. And if your hard drive gets corrupted later then recovery is very straightforward. Just boot from the rescue disc, point it at the backup and you'll be up and running just as fast as the data can be transferred.

Acronis True Image Personal 10 backups are even more convenient when you only need to restore individual files or folders. Click Tools > Explore Backup Archive, select your latest backup, and you'll see its contents in an Explorer window. Find the files you need and restoring them is easy as a quick drag and drop.

The very latest version of Acronis True Image Home speeds up the backup process by adding the ability to exclude particular files and folders, as well as supporting incremental and differential backup types. Once set up you can leave the program to run its backups automatically. And archives can now be indexed by Windows Search, making it very easy to find the file you need. All this can be yours for only £39.95, and you can read more or order at www.acronis.co.uk.