That is the best method. CD and DVD are ok, but they have a higher failed restore rate. If your worried about External HD damage, your best action would be to purchase another external HD and only use it as the Backup's, Backup. If you really want to have a DVD as well, Then take your Bootable Rescue Media CD, boot your PC with it, then Have Acronis just burn a Backup image of your windows install to a separate DVD. Validate it after it's finish burning it. Leave the Rescue software on it's own CD. Edit: in my opinion Acronis is the best system backup soft you can have. I use it everyday, and suggest it to my customers. I have had it fail a few restores from DVD's, however it fails much less than any other app I have used.