>hard drive copy is better
>my experience is 20% of the time
>Drive Image will not restore a hard drive.


 Drive Image by PowerQuest backups and restores partitions into free space
........it does not backup <hard drives > like conventional backup
programs.  In my opinion it is the ONLY way to backup and restore you
system files. It  makes a image file at a user selected compression level
and copies EVERYTHING ....boot sector, volume, partition table the works.
I use it once a week on different partitions, different PC, different OSs
and I have restored my system C partition with Drive copy on multiple
occasions when a new driver has created havoc. The program has always
performed quickly, easily and  flawlessly and I have NEVER had a failure.
Since this is the first time I have ever heard of someone having a failure
I suspect you are doing something wrong.

After spending years dealing with complicated system drive backup solutions
I thank God that PowerQuest came up with this program....there is also a
program called Ghost that does the same sort of thing and is very well
thought of.