I use 3ware hardware RAID 10 with media error scanning. And I don't install multiple OS's on one hard drive. Next, I don't install windows because it will overwrite grub/lilo whenever it feels like it.
The rest, I typically backup the /etc directory to a CD just for posterity. But really, I don't need it and never have because linux doesn't screw up unless I login as root and mangle the thing on purpose. Just my experience.
You seem like you are experimenting with backups. But you are backing up a plaything system. Servers or workstations configured for stability that require backups are not configured that way. Never install windows unless you want to lose your MBR. Windows will break, and you will reinstall, and the MBR will be lost. You will then need a kernel boot floppy to reinstall LILO or GRUB on the MBR. And that sucks.
If you want to experiment with recovering principles, try prevention first. Then backups on a stable system. Acronis trueimage is nice- at least on version 9. It's based off of platespin and is one of the few hard drive backup utilities worth a shit. But it will still get confused when you have multiple OS's, and in fact has it's on boot loader that will overwrite LILO/GRUB as well- if you are using trueimage for backups- and doing it correctly.
As my name suggests, Simplify. Simplify. Simplify. And you won't get fucked. Good luck.
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