Thanks for the folks who advised me re backing up a running system. I'm just testing mondo at the moment. Looks ideal for my purposes. What files can safely be omitted from a debian system backup? Obvious ones are /var/cache/apt/archives (if you're like me an hold onto these files) and /var/spool/squid (if you use squid). Is there anything crucial in /var/log that can't be trashed? Is there anything else in /var? TIA.