If you have a network, you can easily do installs over the network by using kickstart.
Using a network you can image your drives: dd if=/dev/sda | gzip -9 | ssh backup@backupserver "(cd /backups && dd of=mybackup.dd.gz)"
You can also use the original install media to recover a system. Often this is found by booting to the install media with the options "linux rescue" or often found on vt2 during install.
Another idea is to rsync the box you are backing up, then use isolinux to allow the CD to boot, store the rsync snapshot on CD in individual top level .tgz files (and other mount points?), then when booting to the CD for restoration, allow the person restoring to partition their new drive as they see fit, then choose mount points, then perform the restore as requested. This path easy enough that it shouldn't take long to implement.