Is there a way of backing up my entire drive including the OS?

Edit: Moved topic from XP to the more appropriate forum. ~ Animal

Yes, you'll have to use an imaging program (and will need enough storage to store the image).

You may want to check this link for freeware apps: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic3616.html
Also, some hard drive makers will provide a "disk clone" utility that'll do the same thing.

I prefer Acronis True Image for this purpose myself, but it costs about $50 US. But it's very simple to use, very flexible in the options that it gives you, and with it you can be back up and running within 20 minutes.

Thats great, thanks.

Will the new clean drive have an EXACT copy of the previous drive, ie bad sectors or badly fragmented?