For my previous post, I may have not made myself clear. Sorry. I want to have a backup hard drive that will work just by plugging it in. I was wondering if the Repair Disk utility RESTORE IMAGE RECOVERY or back up and restore function in Win7can do this. Or do I have to have some sort of Clone software?

I would recommend some sort of cloning software to easily make a copy of your current drive. You can use any one of several pay and free tools. In the pay department, you can use Symantec Ghost or Acronis True Image. If you like your money in your pocket, you can use the free Clonezilla.

both options are open......try which one you like...but i recommend you to use windows tool as win7 is in beta stage and we can't say that how much reliable is it to use a 3rd party software. they may not function well and correctly.

Well, I can say from my personal experience that Symantec Ghost and Clonezilla work well with Windows 7 as they do with all other Windows versions. However, to test out the built in capabilities, I do agree that the Create an Image Backup feature should be thoroughly shook out.

The Complete System backup will make an image of your drive, and I presume that you can install it on another hard drive (the directions state that it can be used to recover to another hard drive in the event of a hard drive dying). Haven't actually tried it myself tho - so you'll have to actually try it to see.- John