[CyberMonkey]

I use a nice little program that is free for my backups.
Can't remember the name off the top of my head (next time I go smoke I will look on my Touch for the name).
It's a small .exe file that you run (no installing of it is needed). It backs up contacts, calendar, messages, and any folders and/or files you want that you can set.

What I would like to find is a program that makes a complete image (kinda like an image for a PC) that you can load that does not require a separate program to use.

For example, your device goes belly up, instead of hard resetting or reflashing, you connect it to the PC via active sync, run the image and it restores the exactly to when the image was created and saved.