Making A Backup With Imaging Software

If I use imaging software and backup my pc, will all the registry errors and double registry entries and such be on the backup?
I want to completely wipe my hard drive clean so I can reinstall the OS.

 

Imaging is not selective. Everything gets backed up, good or bad. But if you are reformatting and reinstalling Windows the image will only be of any use should you want later to copy off any personal files it may contain, which should be done beforehand anyway.

 

I'm so afraid that if I backup that I won't get everything I need. I've done backups before and then not be able to read what was written because something was missing. I've lost stuff that way and it has kept me from doing backups for years. It's a double edged sword. I guess with an image everything would be there and of course I wouldn't be reinstalling the OS from it so I wouldn't be getting the errors. I'd rather not do an image but I'm afraid I'm going to miss something I need. I used backup software and it still didn't work right. I don't know if it was because I changed the file path of programs or renamed my documents, or missed backing it up.

 

The imaging process can be a bit confusing for first timers so I usually advise ppl wanting to try it to have a practice run or two. It's no good waiting until you have a real problem and then realising you don't know how to recover an image or files it contains.

 

plodr uses Acronis True Image but, there are other programs that allow you to create CD or USB media like AOMEI Backupper or Macrium Reflect. You'd run those from the CD or USB as well and I agree about running the software outside of the installed Operating System.