ghost for linux

I spent a little time awhile ago looking for a ghost like tool for linux and came up with limited answers.

DD
some command that can be used to copy an entire partition.
pros: copies everything?
cons: copies entire partition or disk, cna't remember, so if you didn't 0 pad your disk your backup file will be HUGE.

partimage
a rudimentary partiion backup tool that runs on linux, its part of knoppix so you can take a look. i'm not sure how well it'll work with NTFS. mayabe one way around this is to use FAT32 so that its much easier to backup with opensource tools?

as you can see I need someone that knows backup for linux to post a comment!