This is my procedure for backing up my Drupal sites. I have used it to backup and restore sites, so I have verified that it works. I also use it to backup a production site and restore it as a remote or local test or development site. In these cases, I also have to edit the configuration to account for differences such as the settings.php file or the CiviCRM settings that are site specific.
On the host site, create a directory backups and within that directory, create a subdirectory archives.