File backup to portable hard drive - software recommendation

Just wanted to share my experience backing up an NB505-N508BN netbook, for those interested in backing up their C drive.
Bottom line: I strongly recommend Free software called "EaseUS Todo" from the CNET downloads site.
Strengths: very good user interface. Does a lot of hand-holding and provides descriptive feedback of what is happening. Also was quite fast: for my 32bit Netbook with Atom processor, creating a 40+GB image file took about 1 hour, and on my 64bit Acer PC with triple-core AMD Athlon II processor, creating a 50GB image file took about 30 - 40 minutes.  
[Updated on Aug 3, 2011: Have also been able to do "Incremental Disk partition backup" and "Incremental File backup" with no problem at all. The sw guides you through it neatly. The sw also has tools to pick and explore any backup image file - full or incremental, to see what's in it.]
I used a Verbatim portable drive (usb 3.0, but connected to my usb 2.0 netbook or usb 2.0 PC, so I got only usb 2.0 speed) that came with bundled "Nero" backup sw. Nero was relatively poor in terms of user interface and hand-holding. And it really did not work. The "time left to finish backup" indicator showed tens of hours left and the needle hardly ever moved (I gave up after 40 minutes and achieving 19% of the backup and no further progress, and went over to the CNET site to find something better. CNET editors and users both recommended EaseUS Todo quite highly on their site, and the sw was free, so I downloaded that.
I have no particular affinity for any sw company or brand; I just like sw that works. But if you are a first time backer-up like me, I'd say don't bother with anything else -- download the Free EaseUS Todo from CNET. It works perfectly with the NB505 netbook and you can get it right the first time.
Nat

Wozzy,
it is saying that the S.M.A.R.T Status of the drive is not supported
S.M.A.R.T will only support the drive that you boot from.
Like Miriam says you can use SuperDuper. You can also use Carbon Copy Cloner:
http://www.bombich.com/
With both these applications you can schedule periodic backups.
Will I be able to use with a USB external?
Yes. The 2.0 USBs are bootable but only w/ Intel Macs.
Unfortunately I've already purchased a WD USB external.
Yes depending on the model there have been reports of problems w/ these drives.
Also, will I be able to set the scheduled backups so that it's only pulling specific...i.e. docs, music, photos..and new data each time?
W/ Super Duper I think so. W/ CCC you can:
"* Fast, incremental backups copy only the items that have changed since the last backup
* Archival backup archives items that have been deleted from the source
* Back up to hard drives or to disk images"
It's free but if you like it, like I do, you can donate money to support them as I have.
Richard

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