This is just a couple of tips from the MacOS X Solutions Guidebook combined together in a way that some friends and I have found rather useful to quickly backup our home folder (requires Developer Tools Installation).
Read the rest of the article for the how-to...
1. If neccessary, make the ~/Library/init/tcsh directory:
mkdir ~/Library/initThen, change to that directory
mkdir ~/Library/init/tcsh
cd ~/Library/init/tcsh2. Using Pico, open "aliases.mine"
pico aliases.mine3. Type in (with quotation marks)
alias backup "sudo ditto -v -rsrcFork ~ blah"... where "blah" is the location you would like to store the backup. On my computer, it's:
alias backup "sudo ditto -v -rsrcFork ~ /Volumes/Storage Space/Backup"4. Ctrl-x to exit Pico, save the buffer when prompted.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20011218181747247