HD Copy?

What free HD copying programs out there are worth using? One that wont give me problems if I copy my entire C hard drive onto a storage drive and format the C drive then take the data back from the storage drive to the original C drive? Sorry for the run-on sentence, kinda tired at the moment.

Thanks

Oh, I forgot to mention that I don't want to copy the Windows files over, just the programs I've installed. I don't want to lose certain programs with all of their registry files.

Nevermind about the whole thing, using MaxBlast4.

dd and parted

1. export the registry, or atleast the tree(s) that you want.
2. Program Files.7z
3. Profit!