On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 11:39:24 -0600, "Chad Walstrom" <chewie at wookimus.net> said: > Isaac, can I divert you from any such paths? ... > In my experience, in order to extract a single file > from a multi-volume backup (spanning multiple CD's or DVD's), you MUST > read in the entire volume. ng to the third to restore your one file. ... > If you are not planning on restoring individual files (who ever plans > for such things?) and care only for an archive copy, this might be an > acceptable method. Hi Chad. Thanks for the info. The nature of this backup is archival for the event of a hard drive crash or other massive loss of data. I want to make it as simple as possible using standard Unix tools. I was able to simplify the tar process by burning each volume after creation then letting the next volume overwrite the previous one in my home dir. This should also make restoration a little simpler since I'm only dealing with one volume name.