I just started using the Knoppix CD yesterday. (It's actually the first deb-based distro I've tried.)

I'd like to use to it back up a WinXP machine. My intent is to just boot and dd the whole HDD to an NFS share on a mirrored Sun machine. That way I get the whole MBR and everything. I don't care much about how long it takes, just as long as it works. I figure I finally have the XP install all tweaked and tuned the way I want it and have all the apps I need installed and registered, so I should grab an entire image while it's still good. Over time, the system will probably get broken, distorted, or infected, and restoring an image using Knoppix is a lot simpler than reinstalling. It'll even let me keep my XP activation that way.

Is this a good idea? Is it a bad idea? I've never heard of anyone doing anything similar. Is there anything I should take into consideration (besides needing a HUGE storage volume)?