Lifehacker recently reviewed five so-called offline backup tools (as opposed to so-called online backup tools) that it considers the best of the breed.Online backup tools certainly provide a very valuable service, but for ease of use, cost and security you can’t beat something a little more local when you’re putting together a backup plan. Lifehacker looks at a number of offline backup solutions (see link below), including the free, multi-platform Rsync:

Rsync is a powerful synchronization tool originally invented for use on Unix-based systems. Since its release in 1996, it has been ported in various ways to Windows, Mac and Linux environments. The biggest strength rsync has is its ultra-efficient transfer of data. If you change a single kilobyte out of a 30GB file, rsync will swap just that single kilobyte. In the command line form, it’s as Spartan as you would imagine a ported Unix-based command tool would be. Fortunately, graphical “wrappers” abound for the rsync to slap a more user-friendly interface on it.

Source: Lifehacker, Rsync