Norton Ghost-type program for free

[Dragoneer]

Does Doom9 or another place have a Norton Ghost-type program for free that can re-install not only the files, but the programs automatically? I don't want to have to do anything manually, because at the moment I can do that already.
I don't know what the proper terminology is to call this type of program so I can do a more in-depth search.
In case of a crash, I want to be able to put it on either my external hard drive, or on a disc.

[mikeytown2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disk_cloning_software

http://www.xxclone.com/

[foxyshadis]

There's nothing special about programs vs. files in ghosting. As long as you backup the system drive (with the system and user registry files) along with the actual program files, you have everything.

I've used DriveImageXML (free) and Acronis True Image (not free) with success in the past, the only advice is, if you ever change the partition order or anything, edit boot.ini before you go back. That cost me a lot of time and frustration once.

DIX is the only free software I know of that supports volume shadow services, which is the only way to do true online clone in Windows. (In fact, it had it before most commercial software.)