studio backups

[Kim Cascone]

I've been researching that blind spot in the Linux community: a  
decent backup app
and have read various people recommending tar, dd, dump, rsync,  
partimage, clonezilla, etc etc
each person has their favorite way to do backups and each is woefully  
lame in offering a concise step by step HOWTO
the road of FOSS is littered with half-baked apps that get crap  
support by their disinterested developers

I've tried most of these apps but none of them seem to have the exact  
set of features I'm looking for
ease of use, ability to cron, flawless backups, informative error  
reporting, etc.

I am using an app that I like <somewhat> called QuickStart
QS is basically a script that provides a front end for partimage and tar
and while it backs up my two partitions ('/' + '/home') with tar
my '/home' partition (/dev/sda5) gives an error message with  
QuickStart/partimage

so I've been using QuickStart/tar for my 2 partitions with some success
I say 'some success' because I have yet to test them by restoring them

there is also Grsync, and Simple Backup which both have their plusses  
and minuses
neither of which seemed ready for prime time

I'm still waiting to test clonezilla which seems promising - and  
seems to be a favorite among the more demanding users

anyway, I know that backing up is still a black art in Linux-land for  
some reason
so I wanted to ask people here what they use for backing up their  
precious audio and session files...

q: what is your favorite backup app and why?