Software for bootable backups for Win7

[Mike Yang]

Greetings,

I am looking for software to backup my computers to an external HD.  What I'd like is a program which creates a bootable external HD so that I can restore from the external HD in the event my computer's HD crashes. In my head I have the following ideal procedure in mind:

1) Computer HD crashes.
2) Drink beer to stifle panic, then go buy a new HD for computer.
3) Hook up external HD to computer.
4) Boot from external HD
5) Software automatically restores all settings/programs/files to computer.

Is there software that would do this?  Is there a better way? Obviously free/cheaper is better.  Among the software that I have seen in these forums are:

Acronis TrueImage 2010 - some uncertainty about Win7 compatibility?
Macrium Reflect - FREEware. Any experience?
Syncback - Freeware version does not appear to create bootable backups

Thanks very much in advance for your help.

Cheers,
Mike

[peterkrogh]

Mike,
Not sitting at my PC right now, but IIRC, the system software itself can do this.
Peter