[CentOS] Backup

We have a RHEL2 server that has had one of the drives in the raid array 
fail.  I would like to do a full backup of the system before we replace 
the raided drive, in case the second drive decides to die during the 
procedure. 

What is the recommended way to back up a linux system?  I was thinking 
of doing a snapshot, but the system is ext3 with no LVM.  It has been 
suggested to hook up a usb drive and do an rsync of /.  Are there any 
better solutions? 

The reason I wanted a snapshot is that I wanted to get an image of the 
disk, so that I wouldn't have to reinstall and reconfigure all the apps. 

Russ