cpio examples needed...

["Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom" <carls@agritech.com>]

        I'm setting up my first-ever UNIX-based tape backup system (hastened
by the fact that our old DDS-2 drive [on a winblows box] crapped out this
morning); and I'm trying to figure out cpio. 
        I looked the man page over several times; but I can't seem to create
archives. i've tried (running as a user, trying to archive the files in my
home dir as a test) 
cpio -oad -I * -O test.cpio
but it only gives me a usage help listing.
also tried 
cpio -o <* > test.cpio
gives me "bash: ambiguous redirect"
        tried several other switches & such; no luck
        where am I going wrong?

        I think one of the major failings of man pages, is their lack of
examples. I kind of liked VMS Help b/c it usually gave some decent examples
of usage.

in a more general vein:
        what do people use (commands & strategies) for tape archiving on
their systems? I've heard that cpio is better than tar (tho I forget why);
and that afio is better than cpio, because it is more resistant to archive
corruption. (I don't have afio on hand right now, tho.)
        tried RH's 'taper' utility; and it segfaulted on me. so my
confidence in that thing went down the tubes.
        should I just go use BRU? I would prefer something that uses a nice,
portable format (like tar). I've got enough different tape formats lying
around as it is...

thanks,
Carl Soderstrom