No problem! As holdum and others mentioned we are here to help!
And, yes, it's a good idea to pay a Tech to test your Hard Drive for you
prior to putting something on it as vital and critically important as an Image Backup. In most US locations that will cost you about
$25-$75 depending on whether you have an independent licensed Tech do it for you, or go to a big box computer store such as Best Buy-Geek Squad or MicroCenter. To help you plan for the expense, I typically charge about
$30-$35 to do this testing. I charge more to test a laptop drive than a desktop drive, as they can be much more work to disassemble to get the hard drive out of than a desktop PC.
Thanks for your patience with us. We are a bunch of over-achieving, super-experienced people who aim to please, so sometimes we can come off as pushy or even too intense for a lot of people's tastes.
If you get time down the road, post back and let us know how things went for you.
Cheers and the best of luck !
BBJ