http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronis_True_Image Acronis True Image. It makes a image of your current data all and saves it as a partition in your harddrive. You can try using the msconfig option and see what files you can disable. The first I'd normally do is get rid of all the crap data the laptop comes with. The fastest method would be to reinstall windows, but this voids your warranty. Well than again, anything software related isn't covered by warranty anyway.
Its the age of "Digital" media. Companies are too cheap to give you a disc with all the drivers. Instead they waste your harddrive with the so called "backup."
Other than the default windows option, whatever your computer comes with everything else usually costs money.