I have to agree rsync is the best. I use it to backup my /home that is running on two 320gb sata drives in raid 0. The backups are scheduled to run every night at 2am by root's crontab, and the backup is sent to a Seagate 1.5 tb drive. Here's my rsync command. rsync --archive --verbose --delete-after --human-readable --progress --log-file=/var/log/rsync/$(date +%Y%m%d)_rsync.log --exclude "/home/chris/.gvfs" /home /media/sdb1/Backup/ <div class="gmail_quote"> On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 8:34 PM, HermanAA <<a href="mailto:hermanaa@gmail.com">hermanaa@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div class="im">On Tue, 2009-04-07 at 15:51 -0700, Nolan Cooper wrote: > Nolan flopped in chair, hunched shoulders, and pecked out: > > Walton Hoops wrote: > > /snip/ > > > Face it, the average user _can't_ use cron, and even if he could he'd still > > need to figure out what command to use. > ^^^^^^^^^^ > > And why is that a *bad* thing. > Any time you learn, *that* is good. :) > nolan </div>My backing-up is as simple as right-click on a folder or file, and select 'Create Archive'. I use Ubuntu 8.10. I have limited time. I would love to play with alternatives. I have made a copy of all the opportunities presented (backup2l, rsync, kdar and others). From reading (this list, many threads) I especially appreciate the versatility of rsync. I have read every mail of this thread: (Best Backup software) I think the best Backup software is between our ears. The best way to determine your BU system is to ask yourself: "What if I lost everything (in my computer) today? What part of it would really hurt?" Backing-up stuff that you DO NOT NEED is A SERIOUS MISTAKE. (but enjoying doing so is a valid excuse) Explanation: 'BIG/GOOD' backups are often unwieldy. As a consequence, you will not use it when needed (it takes more time than available). Even with limited backups I find myself picking out specific info in old backups (an important folder, usually). Instead of using the entire Backup. My answer to that specific question: "If I lost everything, what part would really hurt?" VERY LITTLE (say 1% of the data in my system). The trouble is, (without planning ahead) that 1% is spread 'all over the place'. I would have to backup 50+% of the data to be sure the essential 1% is included. So I decided to change my computer-life-style to get rid of the excess. Somebody in the beginning of the thread said: "You have to backup as you go." THAT IS ESSENTIAL THINKING/DOING. ... and that's what I am doing. To make it work, I use a STAGING-AREA, a separate folder 'myBackup'. (with subfolders: myEmail-BU, Financial-BU, myEvolution-mailerBU, and 3 more). As soon I have done the essentials of the day I ask myself: Anything ESSENTIAL/IMPORTANT (in there)? (The answer is clear, even at 70 years old, because I remember the IMPORTANT things easily). I backup accordingly. To my STAGING-area (myBackup folder ON harddisk). For the essential folder or file in question: I use Right-Click > Create archive. I copy the tar.gz file to Staging-area. (I add a date) Now my Backup has become a super-simple routine: COPY myBackup (to 1 of 2 USB-flashdrive routinely, to other BU-media less-often). Note: COPY (the files are easily recognized: 090404-myEmail. I can easily see what I have done and when). I copy to STAGING almost immediately (if it is something that I cannot afford to lose), weekly otherwise. I Backup to Flash-drive same day if anything important has transpired. My backing up is as simple as right-click on a folder or file, and select 'Create Archive'. That was made possible because I changed my computer-lifestyle to facilitate easy Backup. I use Ubuntu 8.10. HermanAA. <div><div></div><div class="h5"> -- ubuntu-users mailing list <a href="mailto:ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users</a> </div></div></blockquote></div> -- Christopher Lemire <<a href="mailto:christopher.lemire@gmail.com">christopher.lemire@gmail.com</a>> Ubuntu 64 bit Linux Raid Level 0