complete backup/restore (disk image?)

I’m sure this has been covered, but a quick search didn’t reveal anything.
Can I backup/restore all of the files in each partition of my drive to a new drive in suse 11.1? And by that, I mean, can it be as simple as just copying the files, using a live CD or something, from one drive to the other, as long as the partition structure is the same, and the boot files dont use the hardware ID’s??

Basically… I want to try re-installing on this HDD (it’s FAST… 10krpm,etc) but, my system is highly customized, and Im not sure if I’m really up for it right now. If I run into problems I’d like to be able to restore my old (existing) system and just be at the point I am now.
In windows I’d just norton ghost the drive to a spare. I did read the post about cloning linux drives, but that clones fragmentation or any other defects as well. If a simple backup/restore is an option, I’d rather do that… (after all, that is the original “defragmentation” routine)

Use clonezilla - Clonezilla

I used clonezilla to do what you are looking for. I originally had openSUSE 11.1 installed on a 250GB drive and then purchased a 500GB. Worked like a charm and I was back up and running in under 45 min.

Clonezilla Clonezilla is good
and a quick Google linux backup image - Google Search gave lots of hits.

And yes it has been covered many times so you could also do a forum search