RSync to the rescue
My iMac has been complaining about a corrupted hard disk volume header. Fortunately I have been keeping all my documents in ~/, which makes things really nice and simple to backup. I use the following command: rsync -aE --delete ~ /Volumes/bender/. The prefix of the string copies everything from the Home directory; it also deletes files that have moved or been renamed. Sure this is low-fi - but it works like a charm. Since I have a lot of data, I usually kick off the command and go play the guitar/drums for an hour or two.