Perhaps Brad has a point!
I was thinking that there would be some permission issues with files being in use, however, this does not appear to be the case (I am currently backing up my home folder as I type and have not had any errors yet).
So here is revision 2 of my backup strategy...
1.) Delete anything you do not want. I am on my third backup command 'cos I keep spotting things I do not want! eg, EyeTV archive of all sorts of random crap (it's huge!) and/or your~/Library/caches folder.
2.) Quit all applications.
3.) Empty the trash!
4.) Open terminal and type the following commands...
Code:
cd /Users
tar -zcvpsf backup_filename.tgz home_folder_name
so for me, with my home folder being /Users/paul it would be...
Code:
tar -zcvspf paul.tgz paul
I prefer to use the command line as it seems to be a lot faster than choosing the archive option from Finder