Hi.
For backup of files, I use
rsnapshot, possibly in your repositories, more information at
rsnapshot . It uses
rsync as part of a larger organization process. I have used it for more than a year, it allows recovery of individual files, and uses hard-links to create a very compact backup, yet still "addressable" by date-time of collection. You can set up cron jobs to do hourly, daily, weekly, monthly backups from the remote gathering computer. I backup at 4-hour intervals.
For a very quick backup of everything, I often used a tar.gz file -- it quickly restores my files to updated, and newly installed systems with no trouble (although you may not want
every old file).
For cloning to create a bootable image, I suggest you look at
Clonezilla - About -- it will use
dd as a last resort, but will first check to see if it can copy by omitting unused sectors. (I use software RAID, which causes a
dd copy.)
Always experiment before you commit important data.
Best wishes ... cheers, drl