@DavidR,
The reason for this backup image was so that in case I need to re-install my system, I don't have to start from scratch (e.g. Windows Update, Software and Drivers). So I am not really looking for incremental updates or anything like that. Based on your suggestion, I could just exclude that one file from Avast scanner and that should solve my problem. However, what I am curious of is, why does Avast think DriveImage XML backup as a virus. Wonder if someone (developer) can try using DriveImage XML via BartPE and maybe find out why this is happening?
@Tech,
Thanks for the suggestion. I downloaded all three and ran all three. Each one of them found a spyware. One is svch0st.exe (attributes SHR) in windows system32 directory. The other is svchost.exe under windows directory as well as a service registry entry as netpker. I cleaned all three, rescanned and made sure there are no more spyware and recreated another image file with DriveImage XML. Avast still picks up the file as a virus. I think something else is there or avast just find something interesting in that image file. Kinda hope someone can shed some light to this problem.