It may be more convenient to bite the bullet and shell out for a drive imagining program. I've been using Paragon Drive Backup Personal since v. 8.5. I've actually used the Restore several times and it works. Version 9.0 has both 32 bit and 64 bit Vista support. Not only can you select individual partitions but you can add folders to exclude lists to avoid backing up large data files that are expendable such as video files.
The RestoreCD has USB support so that even if your system is hosed you can boot the CD with your external USB drive plugged in and restore from the backup on the external drive. Also backs up across your Lan. Very convenient and worth the $40 AFAIC. (and no I don't get a kickback, discount or any brownie points from Paragon.)
