I'm with Teatime on this one.
I regularly backup /Users/wolfgang/(My )Documents to my little NAS that runs BackupPC (that one sucks the Data off of the PC when it's idling), and reinstall as needed.
Most of the time I can keep a system alive long enough that when it finally craps out, a reinstall is the only way.

Call me the Dr.Frankenstein of Windows Repair, because I don't know how many times I gave my Windows installs a Lobotomy from \System Volume Information\...\config\.
If anything, then use the Windows backup tool (which DOES incremental, but you have to configure it right, and thats MENTAL! OK, I kid...) to regularly move your work stuff to another disk and keep a second, more infrequent, copy around in case the first disk jumps ship.