diff --git a/lib/tasks/backup.rake b/lib/tasks/backup.rake
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..30ba32f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/tasks/backup.rake
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+desc "Creates a backup of the user files stored in public/"
+task :backup do
+  dirs = Dir.glob('public/images/[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]') + ['public/articles', 'public/thumbnails', 'public/user_themes'].select { |d| File.exists?(d) }
+  tarball = 'backups/files-' + Time.now.strftime('%Y-%m-%d-%R') + '.tar.bz2'
+
+  mkdir_p(File.dirname(tarball))
+  sh('tar', 'cjf', tarball, *dirs)
+end
--
libgit2 0.21.2