Another "compromise" solution is to run dual boot so that getting the system up and running is almost instant but making regular back ups of the un recoverable data you accumulate by making backup cd's of the "My Documents" folder and posibly also the email database files.
I also have a special folder which I keep for copies of handy progs and info in which I also back up about once a month or so. (Nothing worse than finding the download link you rely on as the backup has suddenly disappeared.) LOL
I mainly use CD/RW for this as I can then "update" the backup rather than just copying everything, but I also make a "hard Copy" on CDr every once in a while to cover the times when a document gets deleted as being no longer of use, only to be absolutely essential the very next day. LOL
The final tip worth considering is to keep the data partitions seperate from the operating system ones as often one may need to just format and reinstall the windows partition but get forced to format the data files too if they share the same drive.
Just something to add to the melting pot of very good advice already given.
