Advice on disk imaging software

[LaxScrutiny]

Basically what I want to do is plug in an external usb hard drive, image my main drive, and then unplug the usb and store it safely so it won't be affected by power surges, virus, etc.

I'm not worried about incremental backups, etc. My personal files are backed up to cloud, as well as to my laptop. I am only concerned about the OS which is a recent clean install and my major applications. Obviously being able to restore from an image will save me a day and half of installations, OS and software updates, etc.

I wish the usb external drive to have a basic ability to boot and do the restore from start up, so as to avoid the need to boot from the main drive. So it needs the boot and restore application on itself. I'd prefer not to have to make a boot dvd on top of this, but will if I have to.

I thought this would be the most simple option, but as I Google different software, none of the descriptions seem to really say if I can do this. I'm sure most them support but the web pages seem intent on describing a dozen things that I'm not interested in.

So I'm wondering what others have used and what would be appropriate for my needs.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JustAFriend]

Clonezilla.org

I've used it for years. It's free, too.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Thanks! I'llcheck it out.

 

[Amaris]

I use DriveImage XML. It's free, and has worked perfectly for me every time.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Thanks, J, I'll check that out!