best way to backup->repartition->restore

Would it be better to backup my system on an external hard drive with SuperDuper, boot from that drive, repartition my external, then copy the system files to the newly created system partition? Or to backup, boot from install dvd, repartition, reinstall OSX, then use the migration assistant to copy my files and settings over? I don't even know if the first one is possible. If there are any other better options too, please let me know. Thanks.

 

Sorry, I did mean internal.

I have my iMac with a 250 GB hard drive. What I'm wanting to do is make it two partitions: 1 for my system and 1 for my home folder because I found a way to change the default location of the home folder. So I want to backup my entire internal drive, repartition it to two different partitions, then restore all my settings and documents back on. The problem I see with a simple restore is that the partition scheme will be different and so simply restoring won't put everything back to where I want it to go. I could just backup my home folder, reinstall, then copy that over, but then I would lose all the settings and preferences I have for OSX, which I would rather not have to redo. So I'm looking for the best solution. Thanks.

 

Can anyone help? I tried reinstalling and then using migration assistant. Problem is that I can't transfer my users to my new partition I created for it, only to the system drive, and my home folder is too big for the system partition, so I have to create a new user, which defeats the whole purpose of using the migration assistant for me anyways (settings, favorites, etc that are unique to my user account). Does anyone know if I booted from my backup and simply copied over all the files manually, would that work?