Nobody's mentioned that Windows 7+ has a good image creation tool built in?

I've used that and restored with no problems.  It even will send the image to a network location.  I still have an old version of Ghost lying about for older OS backup, like XP, but for all my new workstations I use a combination of the image backup when the install is fresh, and Home Server for daily backups.  All for FREE!

Home server 2011 is quite nice BTW... You can get a license for $50 or less depending on sales.  Throw some older hardware together and fill it with drives and you've got a solid backup solution.