Any good tips on backups? I have a wireless backup hard drive and software from each computer.

What I was really wondering is how to make a new image of hard drive in iso ? In case of catastrophic failure. I just got this laptop running Windows XP Pro, all the updates, all the programs all the optimization, Advanced System Care cleaned and running sweetly... is there a way to make a new image from this updated fresh install? Looks like all software to do this needs hard drive removed and OS not running. I can pull the new SSD HD easily...