Backing up your computer shouldn't be a tedious task. Macrium Reflect Free Edition makes file backup incredibly easy thanks to its intuitive user interface and helpful wizards.
Macrium Reflect creates a single-file snapshot of everything on your system and it's a great way to protect your data in the event something catastrophic happens (like your main hard drive failing). If you've got an image saved somewhere safe (like an external USB hard drive), you can boot your computer with a Macrium recovery CD, restore the image to a new drive, and be running again as though nothing ever happened