HA Server Backup Tool/Process recommendations needed (XP Pro only)

["David Gumbrell" <david.gumbrell@xxxxxxxxx>]

My HA server hard disk appears to have started to die last night.
Makes weird noises, very forgetful but not totally dead. Yet. <insert
age-ist joke here>

I have scheduled data backups and I have a fall-back light switch
scheme, but rebuilding onto a new hard disk still took several hours.
I am considering a hot or cold standby machine, or even cold standby
hard drive, but also have to balance risk/cost.

So what would you do for backing up an HA server against catastrophic
failure as well as accidental deletions?

Server runs XP Pro (no choice on that ... it's not going to Vista and
I can't get/afford WS2003)
Slightly inconvenient to attach external drive directly so could
consider this on an occasional basis.

How good/bad is BIOS/hardware SATA RAID on most motherboards from the
point of view mirroring and surviving a single hard disk failure ?

What is easiest/cheapest/quickest disaster recovery tool to get a
machine rebuilt quickly ? Especially interested if they can have
scheduled backups to a NAS to avoid having to clamber about with the
external drive.


Cheers

David