Vista - Backup suggestions plz

I usually backup my data or system with my Maxtor listed below using Vista Backup. However, due to my lately system installations I realized the backup became useless. Every time the after OS installation, the Maxtor appears to the system as a raw, newly installed drive. I had to format, repartition and assign drive name to be accessable. So the backup process became mainingless.

Please suggest a way that I can use this Maxtor for its purpose other then external HDD. I have reacently aquired Acrion TI, if it helps?

Thank you.

As you now have Acronis TI, you don't need to use Vista Backup. I think it would be better to do it all with one program so you have an integrated backup system. You will find TI has better features than Vista's backup.

Also, as you have TI you should never need to reinstall Vista from scratch. You can save an image of your Vista system when it's all set up, customised how you like it, activated, and able to read your Maxtor external.
Then if a situation arises where you think a reinstall is needed (such as major virus damage) you just restore the system from that image. If your system could read the Maxtor when the image was made, it will be able to read the Maxtor when the image is restored, so it should not appear to the system as raw.

It's important to make the bootable CD of the Acronis TI program, so you can restore from the backup image on the Maxtor external drive to your internal drive if Vista becomes unbootable. (There's an item on the menu when you run TI in Windows, to make the bootable media). Test the bootable CD after making it, to be sure the Acronis TI program on it can read your external and internal hard disks, for example you could use the Verify command to make it read your saved image file on the external disk.

Thanks OldBloke for your detailed reply. However, you have mistaken that the Maxtor is actually an internal drive instead of external.

Per your instruction and logic, it seems the internal drive can be treated exactly the same way as an external one. Is it true?

Thank you.

Yes, everything I wrote still applies if the Maxtor is connected internally on a SATA cable or externally via USB.

It seems odd that each new install of Vista always reports it as Raw. That can happen if it's formatted as a dynamic drive instead of as a normal basic drive. If that's the case I suggest a fresh start with it: you could delete all partitions and then make one new primary partition formatted as NTFS.
It's easy to convert a hard drive from basic to dynamic but you can't do a lossless conversion from dynamic to basic.