Make USB Drive Bootable, then Backup & Restore with it

[irve]

I have a Lenovo laptop without a cd-drive, and am looking for backup software that would allow the following:

• Make a USB drive bootable for restoration
  
• Do incremental backups
  
• Be able to restore individual files, whole partitions, or just files and settings onto a fresh installation
  
• Password-protect backups
  
• Not lock down the system with bizarre background services
  

Lenovo has a free program that does have these functions except for the last one (I think it might be compatible with non-Lenovo computers as well): ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery However, it doesn't work very well (like some other Lenovo software). The last time I tried it, it totally broke Windows chkdsk until I uninstalled R&R. R&R installs a bunch of services that seem to muck stuff up generally, and I don't really trust it to come through when I need to make a restore.

I know there are several posts here about Ghost alternatives, but I'm looking for more of a backup/restore solution than a cloning one. Also, lots of backup software seems to require making a CD boot disc for an eventual, which I would like to avoid since my laptop can boot from an external USB hard drive.

Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

[irve]

Embarrassingly, I found a promising option not long after posting this: DriveImage XML from Runtime

[rendrag]

welcome to the community

let us know how you make out with it. I was searching for something similar for my home network, and this looks promising

Edited March 14, 2008 by rendrag