[cobalt-users] Backup, Recover, Restore - Strategy

[Steve Chase <stevechase@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Last week I applied the Raq3 webstats analog patch that left my server
inoperable for a few days do to problems that patch caused with
/dev/null.

In the event the unit could not have been salvaged, how can I backup a
whole Raq and restore it.  My ISP has an identical Raq3 in storage for
me and I was unable to use the browser interface to do a full restore. 
My ISP does not run tape backups on their network.  Is there some
command line ways of doing a full system backup?  Some kind of disk
image or copy command?  Can I even just tar up the whole drive and then
untar it on a newly formatted system?  If anyone has ever done a full
recovery could you please tell me your method.  Thanks for your
responses in advance.