I used to do a Drive Image backup of my boot partitions once a week.
I got out of that habit, but I will start it up again with my new
system maintenance plan. So far I do an new image at least once a month.
At work I used to do an image backup once a week, as part of the weekly
virus scan, scandisk, defrag, optimize routine.
For the rest of the data (work files, mp3s, etc) I just use normal backup
tools, or burn the files and folders straight to CD. Those files are a lot
easier to restore as long as the OS itself is intact.
I usually keep the latest image on another partition or a separate HD on the
system. But will burn it to CD every now an then to keep "off site", and to
keep track of older images. This can help if you have a recurring problem and
need to restore from a past point to try to figure out where it showed up from.
I've found that I have less to worry about from HD failure than I do from
new software screwing up settings during an install, Windows glitches and
or driver installs causing more problems than they fix, and basic user error;
these cause me more lost time and lost files than any Hardware failures I've
ever had.