Disk Imaging

[#1]

Hi
I recently got a Fujitsu Amilo laptop for my son.  It didn't come with any disks at all, so I told him to burn a set of recovery disks for the inevitable day, when it goes pop.
He's tried a couple of times.  The first time, it managed to burn 2 DVDs and came up with an error on the the third.  The second time it only managed one full one.  I've emailed the manufacturer to see if there's anything else he can do, but I suppose the obvious answer is to get a mirror of the disk.
I've never used this sort of software, so I need to know if there's a cheap (or free) product that'll do the job?  Is it easy to use?  I assume that the first disk in the set would need to be bootable.?
Any help gratefully received.
John

[#2]

Acronis True Image is great software and reasonably priced (if you have a Seagate HDD check out Seagate Discwizard which is basically the same software rebadged). Clonezilla is excellent software in a enterprise context but might be a bit complex for home use.

[#3]

The image created by Acronis doesnt have to be bootable as you boot from the rescue cd and it asks for the dvd or file name. Acronis is the best and cheap to buy if you google you can get a free copy of the old version but the new one is only £40 see
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/