> But this is exactly what i want to do, is there no utility that will do > this for ext2/3? tar, cpio, afio. (afio is supposedly like cpio; but writes archives in a more durable fashion... better able to recover corrupted archives). you might want to look into afbackup. (afbackup.sourceforge.net). I think it might support some of the things you want. Carl Soderstrom. -- Network Engineer Real-Time Enterprises (952) 943-8700