Need details on Vista Backup & Restore works?

I have a Dell desktop, quad core Intel processor, 4 gb of ram, no power issues. I use the bkup & restore in Vista Hm premium to bkup to a Seagate ext HDD. It worked fine with XP; it appeared to work fine. With Vista, well??? I've done some reading at Microsoft & elsewhere. The info is OK as far as it goes. I still need to know more.

My understanding is thus: when you 1st begin, a bkup "set" in a folder is created on the external HDD (in my case) with a full PC bkup, with drives, partitions, etc. of your own choosing. The subsequent bkups are incremental files rather than full new copies and are added into this original folder. You can start a new bkup set by doing a new full PC copy which will then incrementally add "updated" files to the new folder. After you begin another full bkup, the 1st full bkup is sealed so to speak; it will receive no more modifications. Each bkup set is given a unique name which includes the full bkup creation date & time. I read in several places that you can DELETE bkup sets by simply deleting the bkup set folders on the ext HDD (in my case). QUESTIONS??

1. Is my vision essentially correct?
2. How do you start another Bkup set in a new folder in Windows backup? The only way I have found, I think, and this occurred 18 months ago, is to change the bkup specs (drives, partitions in the bkup) to force a new full bkup. That's NOT a useful way to do it when you don't want to modify your sources.
3. A Delete Issue: I noticed previously I could not recover an older file from 2010, (Error=backup file not found!) Recently, after more reading I checked the folders on the Seagate Ext HDD in Windows explorer and found only 2 bkup set - the earliest was dated 9/25/2011. I then went into the Vista Backup & Restore center to view the list of bkup, older than 30 days, that I had available. There were about 35 prior to 9/25/2011 going back to Jun 2010. I tried to Restore some of the files from the folders listed in the Backup & Restore center, but not shown on the Ext HDD and got the same error msg as before each time. I think I deleted a bkup set off of the ext HDD earlier that contained these earliest files a year or more ago. Why does the Backup & Restore center still show them? How can I correct the table in the Backup & Restore center?
4. My Dell PC came with a Recovery partition on one of the HDDs that contains a bkup of the Vista OS. Do I need to back this up? If this is useful (in all respects) and since it is a static file, perhaps it would only be necessary to back it up in ONE bkup set rather than each time a new one is created?

Is this expecting too much out of the Vista backup software?
I don't know that I will get to the point of creating things such as more elegant OS bkups. I have many interest, that are not PC focused. For now, I will probably rely on the OS bkup on the Recovery partition and doing several hours of Windows updates.

If Vista backup is being stretched, I'd appreciate tips on other freeware\payware to get this job done.
In gratitude,
U4nasia :huh:

The Windows 7 backup will back up your partitions. The Vista backup won't, unless you have Vista Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate. You can use Macrium to create a system image on Windows Vista Home Premium: Imaging with free Macrium - Windows 7 Forums

Vista Home Premium does provide auto backups of data, Home Basic does not. Thanks for the tip on Macrium.

Check out the Tutorials section on this website. There are some excellent entries that describe how to do various backups and what they mean. You are headed in the right direction. A backup of data is more valuable than your equipment. Equipment is easily replaced, but data is not. And now that storage has become so amazingly cheap compared to years before, it makes far more sense to buy external storage devices to back things up. You can even do something simple as pop in a 16Gb memory stick, rather than having to invest in a complete external disk drive (if you're running low on disk space with your primary internal drive).

Thanks for the rep, U4nasia!