How do I make a drive image before I experiment ?

Hi,

I want to image the drive on my new AA1 (linux, 160Gb) before I experiment with installing XP & OSX, but Norton Ghost 2003 (on a bootable USB key) only saves a 23Mb image and claims it's all done - which it plainly isn't ! I've been trawling various forums and googling for over two hours now and I'm none the wiser ! I tried macles' backup prog, but it won't backup to any other drive than the one it boots from, and my USB stick isn't big enough, and I can't get my 40Gb USB HDD to boot (I think it's the cheap caddy - it works fine in all other respects, but won't boot anything).

Whilst I'm a (Windows) server engineer by trade, I'm a complete newb with linux and I really need something plain and simple that will just make an image of the AA1 to a file, so I can restore it if (when !) my multi-boot experiments all go pear shaped ! ...something that doesn't involve typing in fifty lines of linux gobbledegook preferably.

Tell me it's possible.... I'll buy the prog if needs be... does Acronis True Image do it ? DriveImage ? BING ? what ?

Many thanks !

 

Try here:

http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/12/acer-aspire-one-aa1backup.html

http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=3182&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=30#p31803

I use a bootable usbkey with ping; works great!