Thanks for the responses... Upgrading at this time would be GREAT. Unfortunately this is not going to happen anytime soon. I have another hard drive with RH9 and 2.4.4 on it, but it's only half-configured, and it took a while to get to that point.
As per the current, Irridum-dust, ancient setup, it's Debian, a really old one... "Woody"? Again, upgrading is in my list of stuff "To Do". So, Chunksize is the problem, and nobody's sure the syntax for 2.4.1? I'll experiment... It seemed unlikely that it was merely the SIZE of the filesystem I was trying to back up, because I've got another which is really huge, and I had assumed it was even huger than this one. You know what they say about assumptions. Again thanks all for the help. -wab "Chunk: You guys'l never believe me. There was 2 cop cars, okay? And they were chasing this 4-wheel deal, this real neat ORV, and there were bullets flying all over the place. It was the most amazing thing I ever saw!" -The Goonies