Permissions problem with archiving

[Mikuro]

I'm trying to archive the majority of my disk's contents for a backup, but whenever I try to archive my root-level Library or Applications folders — with either the Finder's built-in zipping system or, as I prefer, with StuffIt — I get errors saying that I don't have proper permission or "insufficient access privileges". Neither method cares to give me the chance to enter my admin password (grrr).

It causes the same problems with an external disk which has the "ignore ownership on this volume" option on.

What's the best way to go about this? I'm not looking for a bootable backup, I just want the files saved in such a way that I can, if necessary, put 'em back into place manually. Should I log in as root? Should I ever log in as root?

 

[The Ghost]

You should be able to make compressed disk images of what you want using Disk Utility. The compression allowed is not huge though.

 

[Mikuro]

Nope, doesn't work it Disk Utility, either. Also, while I love using DMGs, they're really a pain to create and manage. The segmenting ability is pretty much worthless (since it requires that all parts be present at once), which makes DMGs a real pain to use for large backups.

 

[The Ghost]

Nope, doesn't work it Disk Utility, either. Also, while I love using DMGs, they're really a pain to create and manage. The segmenting ability is pretty much worthless (since it requires that all parts be present at once), which makes DMGs a real pain to use for large backups.

Darn. Oh well. Also, I know you can make disk images of some folders. And, I thought you could make a disk image of any folder, but no???

 

[Mikuro]

Wel, I managed to stuff everything by using Terminal to launch DropStuff as root. For some reason I was under the impression that didn't work in Panther/Tiger, but it does.

Now a new question: Are there any gotchas I should be aware of when using such a method?