Application for Vista Premium 32 bit system

Does anybody know of a reliable application for sytem backup and restore? for
vista home premium edition 32 bit X86 system?
I tried a trial version of Norton Ghost. There are two parts of Norton Ghost
[1] Backup of C-Partition and [2) Backup for files and folders.
After a trial run for backup for C partition it ran without problem, however, when
I tried backing up folders and files I would get an error message and the application
would abort.

I contacted Norton Technical support - and after three attempts through remote
assistance they couldn't make it work.
realize that although backing up on DVDs is not the way to go, rather use a
external HDD or internal hard drive, but to me this is not cost effective I really lost respect for symantec [Norton] because their technical support
kept making excuses.
1) that first it was a corrupt DVD - after I just purchased new DVDs from Walmart

2) Next they called back and said that because I was using a trial version, the
operability wasn't complete
3) Finally I told them I just wasn't intersted in purchasing it, since I wanted a
application that worked properly 100%.

Norton Ghost is configured for DVDs but it better to use external or an
internal drive.

Vista has its own backup and restore except it doesn't backup windows/Updates
or Program files. (Home premium edition) Bad News.

Finally System recovery from a partition [D] or from system recovery disks recover
from factory settings, however, then you have to restore your data files and
reconfigure settings from beginning - too time consuming. Until I do purchase
an external HDD or an extra internal hard drive, I will rely on my recovery Disks.
Given that every 8-12 months I sometimes do a system recovery its tolerable for now. Thanks

I would take a look at Macrium Reflect. There are several imaging backup programs that provide a boot CD or even more than one type, as Macrium does. The most important thing you can't know for sure until you try it, is if the boot CD with the restore program can see your HD.

Macrium Free version the Linux boot CD has been updated to the same as used by the paid version. I would create the boot CD. Power down your machine completely so you know your disk controller has not been initialized by the Windows driver. Then power up, put in the boot CD and boot from it, then go into the Restore program. If you can see your HD and USB external(if that's what you are using to store your image) then you should be ok. I wouldn't rely on keeping your backup in another partition or in a so called capsule hidden partition. It may be ok for convenience, but if a malware hoses your HD partition table, none of that will work. Best to store it on separate media.

It's an unpleasant surprise if you wait until your system won't boot to actually try the boot CD. If you need your Windows driver to see your HD because you have an exotic controller or some kind of Raid setup, the Macrium Paid version allows you to download WinPE, which can be used to create a boot CD making it possible to load Windows driver(s).

In most cases though, the Linux boot CD should work fine.

There are other good backup imaging programs out there. But I would not rely on a demo. Make sure you can try a free version or a fully enabled trial version so you can test it before buying.