G4U
"Ghost for Linux." This has never let me down. Backup takes a while, 6-7 hours on a 250GB drive for eg, but the restore takes about half as long.
It's a bootable live CD (netBSD) that fires up an ftp client. Yes, you have to have an ftp server waiting for the image, but I have a system set up for this that is isolated.
One machine with an OS (Mandriva) running a DHCP and ftp server, into which I throw an extra hard drive sufficient to hold the .gz image, and a switch. No internet, no security concerns.
I even have it set up on a laptop that the ftp server uses a USB disk. Mobile backup lab. If I want to isolate I have to haul a switch with me and set up a DHCP server on the laptop.
As I say it has never failed me. I have need the images for a bare metal (emergency!) restore numerous times and not once has failed. Most of these restores were complex dual boot machines with 8-9 partitions or more and tons of original data.
The backup and restore commands are stupid-simple. They're displayed on the screen so it's really idiot proof. I can't recommend G4U enough.
The ONE drawback is sometimes it just won't boot on a given machine. But I get around that by removing the drive and slaving it in another. In that case I will consider using dd to image the drive rather than G4U, but I have both options.
I've used mondo rescue, and only gotten one good restore. I don't trust a system that breaks up the backup and spreads it over multiple writable DVDs. Too many places to fall down. I've gotten to #4 out of 5 only to have a read error, a bad spot on the DVD.
And good luck with bacula. 'nuff said. It'd be easier to dance with an octopus.
I agree the big consideration is the restore part. Unless you test you don't know if it'll be a godsend of a huge let down. But I've gotten to where I don't test most of the G4U backups anymore. It's that reliable.
