If you want to avoid using all the goofy backup software that come with firewire drives these days, but you haven’t gotten around to reviewing the rsync man page and you’re starting to get a little worried about your backup situation on your Mac, this is the page for you. Rsync has always been a mainstay in my tools arsenal, but mostly on Linux and Solaris. This set of detailed instructions will clear any rsync cobwebs quickly, and throws in a few Mac-specific details to boot. I’m running my backup now. . . . looking good.
Backing up a Mac with rsync
Published
Chad Dickerson's blog 
Check out rsnapshot (http://www.rsnapshot.org) if you haven’t already. Full backups that only take the space of 1 full backup + incrementals is pretty awesome.