Backup vs sync is something that's worried me in the past. The wife and kids get me to do all upgrades so I always do an iTunes backup before upgrading. I guess the bit that I'm more worried about is when they destroy/lose their phones and lose all their photos and other content. I no longer use iTunes for my music, MediaMonkey does it better.

Thanks for the suggestions, I've been trying out Acronis TrueImage that seems to do a fair job but I'll try some of the other suggestions.