Shadow 4 or Windows Backup?

what are you backing up?

It depends what you want to achieve. If you want a 100% image backup that you can boot off, then neither is likely to do the job.

If you want to backup pretty much everything so that in the event of a disaster you can get things back - but you might need to reinstall and do a bunch of copying, then either is likely to be OK.

So in terms of function, either will do for most tasks. The next thing to ask is - what kind of backup do these do, how often, how easily?

For this - there is no easy answer. Factors you might want to consider are:
- how easy to set up and select WHAT to back up?
- how often should you back up?
- is backup automatic or manual?
- do you need to leave the PC on to get a backup?
- is the backup easy to search, or retreive files from?
- can you get back single files, easily, or do you need to do a big bunch?
- do you need special software to get files off the backup?

Personally - I don't use either. I use QuickShadow. It won't do a backup that you can boot from, but it will backup user data, music, videos, email, etc. And it backs up files as they change on your PC (copies to the backup device a moment or two later).