Backing up full HDD to bootable recovery disk

Hello,

[Short Story]- Trying to backup a FULL copy of my C:\ Drive to a bootable recovery DVD

I have ran into a problem trying to backup a FULL copy of my C:\ Drive with any freeware App. I first used WD Acronis(Yes my HDD's are WD), the problem is that you can create a C:\ disk backup and a boot CD but the are seperate operations you cannot include the backup on the recovery CD.

I have tried saving the boot CD .iso, extracting the files to add the backup on the same disk as the recovery software, and then re-create it into an .iso / burn it. But.... I have not found a way or instructions on how to do so properly as of yet. No freeware .ios editor will allow saving files of over a few 100MB that I know of, so that complicates the matter.

I have also heard such .iso editing breaks any boot-ability of the files. I have tried to re-add new boot files to the disk but I do not know if this caused interference with the old boot files or it just failed.

I have also tried EASEUS and the same problem, you cannot put the backup file onto the bootable recovery CD.

The only USB stick I have large enough to use for this would not boot when I included the WD Acronis backup file on the stick, I have not tried this with EASEUS yet as I prefer the former program.

I have read several posts with people asking the same question around the net, some claim success but fail to give any indication of how, some try to help but with no success, and others say they've tried. I do not understand why this wouldn't be a basic feature in all backup software.

I know that Norton Ghost was a Shell Shocker Deal yesterday for $18 but I have used Norton SystemWorks in the distant past and have read of their softwares misgivings all over the net since and I would rather avoid them all together.

If anyone knows a way of accomplishing this or preferably free software, that I can create a FULL backup of C:\ and include it on a bootable recovery CD so I don't have to have my backup saved in another physical location I would HIGHLY appreciate it(I am about to try out Clonzilla).

I have been trying for several days now to make a copy of my clean windows install which I thought would be a breeze with WD Acronis and its not so clean anymore and I have failed to make a backup in the manner I would like. Forgive me for the details and all but this is my first try at this sort of thing.