few questions on Clonezilla

Question

I'm trying to clone my windows xp installation.

1. If I back it up using Clonezilla and the my XP machine is infected by virus/spyware would I also be bringing the whole mess when I try to back it up.
2. Do I need the whole partition/ whole disk if I use an external hard drive to backup. Would the data be formatted on the partition that I choose?
3. And were also having rotating brown outs here. Would it destroy my current installation or the hardware that I use to backup in case there is a brownout

Answer 1

1) Yup, it is a complete image of your drive. Warts and all.

2) The data will be saved as files in a folder on the destination USB drive

3) Not sure I understand the question. If you lose power while creating the clone image you'll want to start over. If you lose power while restoring the clone image you will definitely want to start over.