Greetings and Happy New Year to ALL the Dell Forum Regulars,

I have just purchased a XPS 400 and it came with 160 Gig HD. I remember reading somewhere that a person who purchased a new computer BOUGHT an additional Hard Drive. Before he added any software or did much at all, he backed up the original Hard Drive to this additional drive. He then removed the backup and placed it away for safe keeping. (In the event of a HD failure). My first impression was two fold... 1. This sound just too easy to be true... and 2. How difficult would it really be to do this? Would I have to purchase another 160 Gig HD or would buying a smaller HD sufficent for the original data, then reformating my original HD, then downloading the data from the backup to the newly reformatted HD? I know things can sound so simple when you first read it but tend to loose its flair when you actually try to perform this type of operation..  Has anyone heard of, or better, DONE this type of backup and then re-install? Your thoughts and the proceedure would be greatly appreciated since my new XPS 400 is still sitting in the box. To be honest, reading THIS forum and seeing the difficulty some are having with their HD has made me wonder in the wisdom of backing up that good old HD before you get bit in the h*ney... Thanks for your time as I tend to drag things out and thanks for any help someone may have... I have come to fully believe in the spirit of these Dell forums...  Art Caldwell