Best Backup Software for this situation

I have had a quick search through this site and i have not found anything that matches my needs.

Anyway the problem i have is at home i have 5 computers for various members of the family. 3 Laptops and 2 Desktops. The desktops have 120-160GB hard drives and the laptops have 20-40GB hard drives.
I have just bought myself a 250GB USB external hard drive so i can backup the computers and not have to worry about space.

So can anybody reccomend a piece of software that would
i) Backup the whole hard drive
ii) Create a rescue disk in the even of a complete system/ hardware failure
iii) compress the data (so i can fit one or two copies all on the same External Hard Drive)
iv) Prefably freeware but i will have to pay if necessary

Just two more things, i have tried a trial of norton ghost 10 and when tried to make a backup it would start then come up with an error saying the hardrive has an operating system on it (if anyone could solve this the better). I had a failure this morning involving a sort of blue screen thanks to that and i had to do a system restore.
The hard drives are rarely full, if anything they are all less than half full.

So if anyone could please shed some light and help me understand whats good, it would definatly put my mind at rest and stop my mum nagging me to make sure her laptop is safe.
Thanx in advance!

P.s if i could remotely backup the other hard drives it will be an added bonus, but is not necessary

 

not *free* but...

I prefer Acronis' TruImage over Ghost. There is a 15 day *free* trial. See it HERE.

B

 

I use and like Erunt, you can find it Here