Computer fresh start, lost my hard drive Options

[Epic]

my laptop harddrive failed, but i got it replaced already.

so its a fresh start, any suggestions for software to install? i've got the usuals, just thought i'd take stock of what's useful these days

[Epic]

ya, I am borrowing a drive bay from a friend, and i found out the 200 gig hd i have is just fine. so i got a lot of data off of it. I was just wondering about system restores and such as well. I'm quite aware of the "back up the data by putting it on there" technique Chuck haha

[Hartmann]

ya, I am borrowing a drive bay from a friend, and i found out the 200 gig hd i have is just fine. so i got a lot of data off of it. I was just wondering about system restores and such as well. I'm quite aware of the "back up the data by putting it on there" technique Chuck haha

Personally, I'd not do system restore stuff on the backup drive, I would simply backup my data and if I have a harddrive problem on the primary machine, wipe the drive and start over, pulling my data back onto the harddrive.

I keep a FireWire drive attached to my computer when working (switching to eSATA soon) and have another FireWire drive that I backup to monthly and keep in a fireproof safe (switching to a safety deposit box soon).

A copy of all of my photos goes onto both drives, with the one that's connected having the edited photos as well. All of my documents go on both using some simple scripts to grab everything and copy it. That's where document management comes into play, as long as you keep things organized and in central locations, backing up won't be an issue.