[Blind-sysadmins] backing up a partition via the internet

Hello, I've got a remote server, Linux, that i have to redo. My hosting provider makes the redo easy, as they have images you can select, operating system version and dependingo on what you pick is what you get. My problem is it'll kill my current data. I've got to back up the / partition from this server to a local server here, then redo the remote machine, then reload the data. Has anyone done partition backups over the net? Thanks. Dave.