Here is what I suggest once the backup is done: Tim, give ssh access back, so that we can check what happened. Ivan and/or Thomas, have a look at logs Thomas, slice up any rsync so that it does not synchronize large file structures. I strongly suspect that was the problem. Saturday, I will be on my way back to the US. I should be able to get back online at 8:00pm EST. I will be back on campus Monday, and can go in the machine room if necessary and thus relieve Tim from this. Christian Zimmermann FIGUGEGL! Department of Economics University of Connecticut 341 Mansfield Road, Unit 1063 Storrs, CT 06269-1063 http://ideas.repec.org/zimm/ christian.zimmermann@uconn.edu http://ideas.repec.org/e/pzi1.html