grsync (rsync) usage question

[Default User]

On Sat, 2007-09-29 at 18:51 -0700, Smoot Carl-Mitchell wrote:
> On Sat, 2007-09-29 at 12:32 -0500, Default User wrote:
> 
> > Thanks for the reply.  BTW, do you run rsync from within a live, running
> > Ubuntu system, or from a live cd to operate on "dead", unmounted
> > filesystems (to accurately copy/move/etc files that would be in a
> > dynamic state on a live, mounted filesystem)?
> 
> I am not sure I understand your question. I generally use rsync as a
> fast copy/update system.  I also use it with glastree (like pdumpfs
> except written in Perl) to do daily backups of my notebook.
> -- 
> Smoot Carl-Mitchell
> System/Network Architect
> email: smoot at tic.com0
> cell: +1 602 421 9005
> home: +1 480 922 7313
> 

Currently I use partimage to make full system backups.  That's fine to
restore an entire system to its condition at the time of the last
backup, say in case of a catastrophic hard drive failure.  

But any changes since the last backup are of course lost, and with
partimage, I can't restore just a file or part of a filesystem, I can
only restore entire partitions.  

So I was wondering if rsync could be used to do a full backup of a live,
running filesystem, from within that filesystem (Or does that need to be
done from outside the filesystem, say from a rescue "live cd").  

Or would I still have to use both partimage for full partition restores,
and rsync for partial filesystem restores and incremental backups?