Hey there i tried this:

tar cvpzf backup.tgz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/backup.tgz --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/media --exclude=/sys /

i excluded media because i have a second IDE HD which just has music on it, and dont wish to back that up

i have plenty enough space however to back up the OS and settings on the primary IDE, but i get this error some way through:

tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

im running the backup command as root btw(previous command i used is sudo su)

any help much appreciated

fyi, im backing up about 5.1gigs of stuff (the OS, Kubuntu7.10 and some installed app's/settings) on a 30gig HD, hope this helps, thanks