Backing up failing hard drives

After getting tired of going skip with mc (midnight commander) each time a file couldn't be read I looked harder for an alternative. Tar seems to do the job nicely.

tar -cvf --ignore-failed-read bundled_filename.tar directory_name/.

This way you can tar the whole directory and every time a file can't be read it just ignores it and tars the next one. If you use screen as well you can check on it from any computer you are logged into.