I have Ghost from NSW 2005. What are the advantages to Ghost over other [free?] options?

I'm a little confused as to the best way to clone out my drive for backup reasons.

 

If I use Ghost from NSW 2005, is there a reliable way to keep the image such that it can be brought back onto a new drive with different characteristics?  Some sort of uber-zip :) of the entire system, but just not at the bit/sector level?

 

Doesn't microsoft have something for this as well?  Sysinternals or the Resource Kit or something?

 

Sooooo baffled.  Embarrassing since I'm a software engineer.  :-/