Is there a reason why you need to create a file? You can use tar as a "pass-through" to create a mirror. Or you could use rsync. bash$ cd /dirtobackup bash$ tar c * | tar x -C /mnt/lrp This will copy files from your linux box to your windows machine, preserving time stamps. Use rsync: bash$ cd / bash$ rsync -rltv /dirtobackup/ /mnt/lrp If you use rsync, you can run this as many times as you like, and it will compare the source with the target. Note that you will not be able to back up all files when the system is running. (/var/run, /lib, etc.) torleiv what you said > I'm running Redhat Linux 9.1. I am mounting a shared drive on my > Windows XP Pro machine using a "mount -t smbfs" command. I'm then using > tar (with compression) to try to backup the Linux system to that hard > disk on my computer. Tar fails when the file size of the tar file > exceeds 2 Gbytes. This is a 200 Gb drive with at least 90 Gb > available. Backup Exec is also backing up to this drive and its files > are 4 Gb to 20 Gb in size, so I don't think it's a limit from the > Windows side. > > Does anybody have any ideas as to why I'm hitting this limitation? Does > "mount" limit you to 2 Gb file sizes? I doubt tar has that limitation. > (Does it?) > > The mount command is: > > mount -t smbfs -o > username=xxxxxxxxx,password=xxxxxxxxx,rw,debug=4,fmask=777,dmask=777 > //larryxp/lrp_removable /mnt/lrp > > the tar command is: > > tar --create --verbose --file=/mnt/lrp/veritas/ntux.tar --gzip --total > --exclude-from=etc/ntuxexcl * > > Both are being run from the root directory (and with a root login). > These commands are in an executable script file that gets run by cron > every weeknight. I am currently only backing up selected directories to > keep the tar file size below the 2 Gb limit and that is working correctly. > > TIA > > Larry Pint > National Truck Underwriting Managers, Inc. > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > -- One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. Don't be so confident - you are not that great.