I recently purchased a 500 gig USB drive for backing up data around the house. Most important is our home video and photograph collection, but ideally I'd like to make an exact image of my wife's Power Mac on a nightly basis.
I am a Linux user (even on my own Mac Mini I run Ubuntu) and so I'm not very familiar with the options on Mac OS X. Can anybody give recommendations on good, free or cheap backup software for Mac?
I could just tar the files over but I'd prefer to be able to perfectly restore my wife's system if her drive dies without reinstalling the OS.
In 20 years of using computers I have never had a drive die on me. Either I'm extremely charmed or there is a big disaster looming.
EDIT: As far as major disasters like our house burning down, my plan is to get a second 500 gig drive and alternate between the two every six months or so. One drive gets sent to the bank to be placed in a safety deposit. At least in the event of a major disaster I will only lose 6 months of stuff.