2010/8/17 Maximilian Bräutigam <max-braeu@gmx.de>

> You should backup all in / except
> /tmp/*
> /sys/*
> /proc/*
> /lost+found/*
> /dev/*
>
> Distfiles are saved outside the root  and I can afford to rebuild world.
My
main concern was losing (gentoo) config files, speaking of which, I
remembered to back up /usr/src/linux/.config, and user folders.

I have no solution how to bzip or gzip your backups or how to make a dvd
> backup, but I use "app-backup/rsnapshot" which uses rsync but implements
> an intelligent rotating system that is done daily, weekly, monthly,
> yearly according to your config. Of course you should store the backup
> on another physical hdd.
>
> By the way, since a new hdd of one TB is pretty cheap, think about
> running your gentoo in a software RAID. Guides:
>
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86+raid+lvm2-quickinstall.xml
> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Software_RAID_Install
>

Thanks for the advices. I am adding rsnapshot to my list.