Can I do a Bare Metal Restore?
 

Now that I am near complete with my MythTV box, I want a real good backup. One that has all the OS (except /var and /tmp), config files, etc...

Is there some way to do a backup that is then availble to do a bare metal restore on a box with a completely empty hard drive?

I might buy a USB external HD, or, maybe I could just put another HD in...

Thanks.

My HD has started making that knocking sound, so I'll need to do this soon.

Have a look at DAR . Check out the tutorial. You can include a dar-static version before the backup is written to media (cd/dvd/zip/whatever). If you should ever need to restore a backup, you'll have a working version of DAR as part of the backup.