Yesterday I successfully used fsarchiver and nfs-utils in Debian to dump a compressed version of my Crux partition onto my old computer upstairs. It took hours to do, and I think it was the wireless transfer that took the time, not the archiving itself, because fsarchiver wasn't actually using a lot of cpu time. The amount transmitted was about 3.2 GB; the uncompressed partition is 6.4 GB.

The next one to go over will be my home partition, which is a bit smaller so should go faster. To dump Debian itself, I shall first need to build fsarchiver in Crux.

It's the kind of thing that seems to call for a weekly overnight cron job but how do I remember reliably to switch on the upstairs server on that night? I'm over 71, remember, and my memory isn't what it was!