Free backup software

[jimmy_onions]

Any of you clever techies recommend a decent free downloadable piece of backup software (I recently acquired a new external hard drive)?

Min requirements are:

Idiot proof and simple to use.
Back up of files obviously, but system back up for use in cases of emergency (e.g. pc re build) would be nice as well.

Cheers all...

[Simon Pieman]

Do you want a backup of the entire hard drive?

[jimmy_onions]

Ideally, yes.

[Simon Pieman]

Couple of ones I use:

Syncback - You can backup or sync drives, folders or specific files by setting up rules (it's easy to do this). The thing I like is when you sync 2 drives/folders it will only update files which have changed if you setup the option to do this.
http://download.cnet.com/SyncBack-Freeware/3000-2242_4-10413802.html?tag=mncol

Easeus Partition Master Home Edition - Not a backup tool as such but a great partition manager, which also allows you to copy partitions or drives easily.
http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Partition-Master-Home-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html?tag=mncol

[jimmy_onions]

Thanks si, will try them out.

[Sippo]

Or could you use robocopy. Simple cmd file will do the job.

[jonny72]

but system back up for use in cases of emergency (e.g. pc re build) would be nice as well.

To do that you need something that creates an image of the hard drive, a full backup of a drive isn't the same thing. Not sure about Windows, but Carbon Copy Cloner does it all for a Mac.