Backups, R&R, Predesktop area...

[juancferrer]

*Cliffnotes*
How to image/backup the drive, and get reclaim the space in the predesktop area.

I just bought a 120gb to replace the 80gb that my T42 came with. Everything went fine, and all I have left to do is just install a few programs. I have the old 80gb drive in a USB enclosure, and i'd like to begin using it to backup the main drive.
Right now, i have just one huge partition, but i'm thinking of using partition magic and make a 20gb partion for programs and what not, and the rest for just files (music, videos, etc). Basically, what i want to do is just get the computer with everything i want (should take me a day or two to get there), and use Rescue and Recovery to make an image of the 20gb partition in case i have to start from scratch again (it's taken over 5 hours to get to this point), and also backup a few select files on the larger partition. I'm sure Rescue and Recovery will let me do what i want (correct me if i'm wrong), but where does the predesktop area come into play?? I'd like to just get rid of the 4gb or so that it's taken up. Is there a need for the predesktop area? Does Rescue and Recovery need it? Also, if i ever decide to do start from scratch with the backups, which i will hopefully make in the next couple of days, will R&R create the partitions like i want them? or am i going to have to ditch R&R and look for a copy of ghost or true image?