A very good suggestion, avibky!
That's exactly what I eventually did earlier today.
Frankly I don't like it. But then I'm quite spoiled after using Acronis TrueImage.
However, I know that the WIB system image can be successfully restored on this laptop (according to Sony). So, there it is for now.
What I don't like about WIB (Windows Image Backup):
- Wouldn't let me backup the image to my friends external WD USB HD (it's FAT32, not NTFS)
- Very limited configurablility (but that makes it simple and more useable for most people)
- Windows does not want you to even view the folders the system image is stored in (I suspect it won't like it if I want to move it.)
- Thru a back door method, I saw that there were a large number of files within the folders for the image, a single file that's location independent would make me happy.