Copying large volumes of files on FreeBSD

So - somewhere in copying my php_sesions directory I have discovered that cp and NFS aren't really good ways to do backups. So, I'm trying rsync and NFS. If that doesn't work, then I'll have to try rsync with an rsync server. In reality, that's probably the smarter thing, but who really knows :-)
Now I know that jenfafa has been complaining that she doesn't really understand, so I thought I should give a bit of a dictionary lesson.
FreeBSD - An operating System (like Windows or Mac OS X) based on the BSD Unix. It looks a bit like DOS, but is a lot more powerful and better than Windows. Good for running servers
Partition - A way of dividing up Hard Disk Drives
NFS - Network File System is a way of connecting computers over networks and allowing them to access files on eachothers hard drives
cp - The Unix Program used to copy files between computers
rsync - A Unix Utility that allows you to copy large numbers of files between computers for backup purposes etc.

I'm sure there are other terms... but NCIS is on and I'm hooked... hmm... will write more later!