errors with tar

I'm trying to back up my home directory using the following command from the /home directory: tar cvf /backup/rcordell.tar rcordell tar gets most of the way through, then at the same place every time it stops with the error message: Exit delayed due to error I can't seem to find out why it is failing; it isn't lack of disk space or anything like that. Does anyone have an idea what might be happening? Is there a better method to backing up a branch of a directory tree? Thanks, Ron Cordell