I just started using the premium plugin Backup Buddy from iThemes. I wanted to use something like this so I could move a website under development on my test server to its real host. In order to test it out, I first ran it on a local install of WordPress and was satisfied with the results so I went for the real thing.
Along with WordPress, sll of my plugins, posts, pages, settings and attachments we installed saving me tons of time and hassle. The only issue I ran into was that some of my posts and pages ended up with non-displayable characters. I thing this may be related to the database character set but I am not completely certain about that. In any case, you can see the site I moved with Backup Buddy at http://createthelifeyouimaginecoaching.com/