Apple

Can someone please help explain how I can make a complete system/drive image of an iPhone? I understand data within the image may be encrypted, but I don't need to read the files, just need an ability to copy and restore.

Basically I'm going t to perform some actions to the phone which may lead to data loss, so I want a true complete back-up which can be re-imaged onto the phone if something goes wrong.

iTunes backup is no good as I understand they exclude certain items, and most 3rd party iPhone backup/extractor seems to be dependent on iTunes as well?

Thank you.