Taking Backups/Images and Restoring Advice

Hi,

I am looking for expert advice and guidance and someone to help guide me through this with a step by step approach. I have appealed for help on other forums and got mixed responses.... Ideally I'm looking to do a "clean" backup and restore without even installing the software doing the backup on the C drive as when the backup is being done it will backup the backup software itself.

Operating System: Windows 7 64 Bit , Drives: SSD C: and 2x 1 tb internal drives labelled as D: and E:, and a 4 TB NAS Drive

I am looking to wipe my SSD hard drive with my programmes on and have a load of questions regarding backups and restoring and creating images etc.

1. What piece of software (ideally open source- but this is not overly important - is best to take a full image of my hard drive)
2. Once I have taken an image what is the best way to properly clean and wipe my hard drive as I have been having errors etc.
3. If I do a fresh Windows 7 install (I have the discs) what is the best way to take a snapshot of the fresh install before I connect to the internet etc. Is there a portable piece of software I can run from a USB stick?
4. In the future if I want to go back to this place in time i.e. the fresh Windows install image but if the best way to restore it and ensure my hard drive it formatted properly.
5. For day to day use what is the best way to fully backup a C: so if a disaster happens I can restore the latest operating system etc.
6. How can I view an old backup without doing a image restore - i.e. take an image of a drive and view in on a NAS drive so I can access one or two files I might have forgotten about.

Sorry if these are dumb questions but I am trying to understand processes for full disaster management solutions.

Hope someone can help guide me.

Cheers