There are two types of backup for desktop computers. A system backup takes an exact copy of everything in a given partition of your hard drive. This type of backup is epitomised by Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image and is ideal if you ever need to reinstall Windows and get back to a previous state. It's like a super-System Restore.

The other type of backup is file backup, where you copy your important document files to another location: a separate hard drive, CD, DVD or network server. This can save your sanity, when (not if) you need to recover individual files.

Symantec has come up with a clever combination of the two forms of backup in one package called, descriptively, Norton Save & Restore. It uses Ghost technology for the system backup and combines this with more standard file backup software for the rest.

It tries to make the whole process as painless as possible, by not only offering a Wizard to take you through the backup process, but also giving suggestions for the backups you might want to set up.

We tried it on one of our software test PCs and it suggested creating a weekly system backup and a daily file backup to a second hard drive on that machine. Both these suggestions are reasonable, though depending on how many new documents you create in a day you might want to increase the frequency of the file backup.

You can do this by altering the schedule in two different ways. Firstly, you can modify the days the backup is run on and the start time each day. You can also specify more than one backup per day and the number of hours between these backups.

Secondly, you can use certain events to trigger a backup; things like installing a new application, when a different user logs on or logs off from a particular computer or when data added to a drive exceeds a specified amount.

These controls make the program versatile and certainly hide many of the complications of a backup system from the less experienced person. You also have good control over the files and folders you choose to backup.

Useful categories such as My Documents, Internet Explorer favourites, or 'all your picture or music files' are helpful. You can add specific folders, or files or file types to these selections, though, giving you a very straightforward way of selecting the exact set of files you want to protect.

If backup has always seemed a bit of a black art, you should get hold of a copy of Norton Save & Restore, which really does take the complexity out of the job. Although it's a bit expensive compared with other backup tools, Symantec's product combines system and file backup in one uncomplicated application.