Manual Backups?

> Hi,
>
> I've had vista fro about a month or so now and decided that it was time to
> do a re-install, just to speed things up a little and get rid of
> everything
> that 'didn't' work with it.
>
> I set up the automated backup and let it go every night for a month,
> thinking it was that simple..... But no, when I came to check the size of
> this, it was huge, not the 6GB or so I thought it was going to be! ....
>
> Anyhow, thought I could use 7zip, which is great, but then I came accross
> the 'Access Denied' problem others are facing (junctions to do with
> Windows
> are stupid!, just for the record), but after I could get into those
> folders,
> my backup went from the apparent 6GB (my user in 'Users') to 26GB!! I
> opened
> the backup afterwards and found that it'd backed up about 6 levels of
> folders
> into the user's folder! It went, Application Data, Application Data,
> Application Data, etc.....
>
> If I can't do a manual backup, whats the point of having the OS in the
> first
> place? Don't get me started on wmp. Why would I want to buy music that I'm
> already listening to, that I already own?? wmp10 all the way, top half
> List
> Pane, pointless!