Making and Restoring Images.

I would like to know what is the best software to use for the following.

I want to be able to make an image of a HD, store this on a portable USB drive. When I need to restore this image onto a PC I would need to boot-up onto the CD Rom image software that has USB support. I will now be able to restore the image from the portable USB Drive.

I have had a look at Acronis True Image and this does what I need except for the fact it does not see any other drive except those installed on the PC. So now I would need to carry the image on a Hard Drive and every time I need to restore it would have to temporally install this drive onto the PC.