How do I create a permanent snapshot of a Time Machine backup I did a clean install of my Mac and continued to use my same Time Machine drive. I want to preserve the last backup before I did a clean install, but Time Machine will delete old backups as the drive gets full.

How can I copy a backup without worrying it will be deleted?

My first guess was to just perform a copy, but I'm not sure this will work due to the structure of a Time Machine backup.
I've decided to use rsync to create an archive copy. This website also mentions hard links so I believe a rsync archive will be fine.

I'm using this command:

rsync -vahW [source] [target]

This SO mentions -W is best to speed up local network copies, plus I'm doing a new copy so no need for diffing.