Proper backup and restore -- is there a way?

[Juan R. de Silva]

> I have asked around a bit and have not seen much in the way of peoples
> actual methods, so I would love to hear what you do when faced with a
> dead system that needs to be restored.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Marcus

Take a look at this http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/  

I backup my system this way scheduled with cron and find it good enough 
for me. I wonder if it would be in any help to you?

And I use also Clonezilla for periodical off-line backup too.