Some more info to clarify what I want to do. Want to copy over the directory that is our samba share from one server to backup server in case of a failure then all I have to do is copy over any changed files from a backup file. again thanks. I'm trying to setup copying some files from one machine to a remote machine in practice of setting up rsync to backup my production server to my backup server. here a copy of what I tried an the error I get. Can someone tell me what im doing worng. jack@dualcpu:/> rsync -a ssh horizon/ root@192.168.0.39:horizon Password: rsync: link_stat "/ssh" failed: No such file or directory (2) rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at main.c(791) jack@dualcpu:/> when I get the Password: line i type in the root password for the remote machine. When I get this going I plan to set this up on another machine but right now trying it out on my test bed machine. thanks jack