How to create an iso & write it back?

http://superuser.com/questions/23370/open-source-freewa...

most of them are to copy dvd's
LC ISO Creator seems right
will it copy an entire hdd into an iso?
will i be able to recover from it an exact copy of how my system is now?

it will do it for a cd see this http://www.ehow.com/how_5095063_make-iso-copy-hard-driv...

Image burn is a good bit of free software to do this and more, or you could try ultraISO on a thirty day free trial.

Having a backup is always important

For files I use Second Copy(to clone all my personal files to a external drive), it works well(but does not retain creation dates from the original files   ).

For a windows drive image, something like this may work for you. I have used it to migrate from one drive to another. Since it creates images, you can actually reach into the images and grab a file should it go corrupt. They list a recovery CD/DVD as well(that I have not tried, but should allow you to restore an image even if windows has failed to load)
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-so...

These are not ISO files but are image files.

you can type that, but you don't know how to use iso files?

i know how to use an iso
with isobuster
daemon tools
etc...

but what i need is to backup sector by sector a drive
& to be able to restore it
the question is what sofware could backup sector by sector
& how to recover when i can't log into an OS...

To back up a drive, exactly, you can clone it with Clonezilla, Macrium, or Ghost. To hack into the OS without the password, look up the xxxxxxxxxx [edited] livecd.

@ammaross forum rules do not permit this for cracking software edit and remove last parts on post

Sorry. I figured a professionally marketed piece of password recovery software would be admissible. The livecd is their freeware version of their professional grade product.

Most backup software that can create ISO's are aslo able to create rescue media which is just a bootable cd/dvd which the restore operation can be run from.