Need Advice on Backing Up My Computer

[briley]

Hey all,

I have a 40 GB HD, of which I am using ~15 GB. Don't shoot me, but I haven't backed up my computer before. (Living life on the edge.) I have been blessed with no crashes, etc. However, with the new year, I am turning over a new leaf and wanting to learn how to back up my computer correctly and efficiently. Can someone point me in the right direction? I don't have an external drive (except for a small jump drive). I do have a CD-R drive. What do you suggest? I'd love to hear all thoughts. Has anyone backed up their computer online (Iomega)?

Thanks,

-Bronson

[glc]

Backing up 15gb with CD's is going to be time and media consuming, but is a lot better than nothing - at the very least, just copy the files that are important to you to CD's. I'd recommend you purchase an external hard drive and periodically "clone" your internal drive to it. I use an Apricorn external drive housing with a standard IDE drive installed in it, these housings come with the appropriate software. This will cost you just over $100 for the housing and an IDE drive.