Creating 'recovery' back-up

I'm running XP Pro SP2 on 250gb HD, and I have it all set up with my apps and drivers and everything just the way I like it. What I'm wondering, is there any way to create a 'recovery' disc or image that would contain only my OS and drivers? Or should I have done this right after I did a clean install of Windows with my drivers? I would think that Acronis or another similar app would be able to just back up the OS and drivers, so in the case of a major meltdown I could recover from the image/disc and end up with a clean XP with my drivers; or if I just wanted to to a clean install, I could use the image/disc and get XP up and running with all my drivers already installed to save time. Or is it too late to do this, now that I have about 150gb worth of programs, data, docs, and what not already loaded on my HD.....

Thanks for any ideas!

 

Honestly, I would do it now with all my apps and stuff, but the back up image would be too freakin' huge to store anywhere but another hard drive of at least 160gb. What I want to do is just put the OS with the installed drivers on a DVD so I could just restore from that at some point. I guess I'll have to do it the next time I do a clean install. I usually wipe and reload 3 or 4 times a year (this is on my home PC) just to keep things in tip-top shape and to completely clear out the dead wood every so often. I'll probably being doing it again in about a month or so, so I'll just have to build my restore image at that time. I think I'll make it with the OS, the drivers, MS Office, antivirus/antispyware, Adobe Reader, Nero, FireFox, codecs, and some other apps that I can't live without, and put it on a DVD. But if someone out there knows of a way to just do Windows and the drivers at any point in a system's life, please post!!!