Greg Folkert wrote: ...
The issue here is that you only need to backup your data. Backups of /usr and /var and so on mean nothing.
I think you're giving bad advice. Think about /var a little more, for example: /var/spool/mail/ /var/spool/cron/crontabs/ /var/lib/dpkg/info/ /var/log/
A /usr on a CD does you a crap-load of no-good if you system is toast.
Doesn't it let you copy it back to the system (e.g., when booted from a rescue disk)? Daniel