I use software called PartitionMagic and Drive Image by PowerQuest to manage my hard drive and create fast backups of my Windows system. Copying my backups to a CD provides addition security in case of hard drive failure.
All partitions appear in the Explorer utility as separate hard drives.
It's basically creating a clone of your hard drive and storing it in one large compressed file. When you restore this partition, the partition will look exactly the same. I eventually burn that image to CD for long-term safekeeping, but having a full backup means I can get back to my PC s previous pristine, working state whenever I need to. I can also restore single files quickly and easily. CD-RW are now quite affordable.