[rdiff-backup-users] Age old problem, how to 'archive' old data out of backups?

[Chris G]

Is there any easy/obvious way of archiving old data out of home
directories so that rdiff-backup backups shrink?  I suspect that there
isn't but it's surely an important requirement for any sane backup system.

My home directory is now something like 220Gb, of that about half
(mostly images) is real live data, the other half is backups done
during OS upgrades, backups of other users' data, backups of old disk
drives, etc.  I really don't need live backups of this 'other half'
but I can't see any easy way of getting rid of it such that it
actually cuts down what rdiff-backup copies as well.

Is there any way around this problem?

-- 
Chris Green