[orca-list] problems backing up files

[Michael Weaver <weavermicha googlemail com>]

I am trying to backup my Ubuntu system but I am having problems finding
either a suitable backuptool which works with Orca or even do it
successfully with the command line.
With Deja-dup I get an error message about certain files like Duplicity
etc and it refuses to backup properly.
I even tried backing up my files from the terminal with as root user
after doing sudo su and typing my password with cp /home /media/DISGO,
the /media/DISGO being myy USB stick only I get an "Ommitting /home"
error message or something.
Unless I am doing something wrong such as maybe not adding *.* after
my /home after the CP command I can't understand why Orca gives me this
error message.
Not adding *.* is the only thing I can think of which might prevent me
from backing up my home directory.
Maybe someone could also suggest which files I might need to backup as
well as either a suitable app that works with Orca or a command line
which isn't complicated.
I read something about it being able to be done with the tar command
only I will have to look it up each time unless there is a way of
scripting the commands so I can run them automatically every so often.
Someone else suggested Rsync or something only it looks a bit
complicated and I am not sure if you need a server for that command
which I don't have.