backing up

[hoops]

well, it's just about that time, my warrenty is up and my laptop is more than 2 years old...it is my only computer and i have all my "work" on it. i have never ( Hand to God) had a computer crash on me...maybe because i can only do one thing at a time, i don;t know. but i am beginning to become concerned that i could lose decades worth of stuff. what it the fastest, cheapest, easiest way to back up my junk? what equipment do i need, will i know how to retrieve it once i store it, explain it to me like i'm a 75 year old please. and i thank you
peace
hoops

[paularoid]

As a former backup professional (if I may be so bold as to proclaim that status :p ) I'll say these things:

1 - Does your laptop have a CD drive? If so is that CD drive also a burner/writer or is it just a reader?
2 - If it's not a burner then look into obtaining one (external I would assume), hooking it up and getting it dependably operational.
3 - Start backing everything up. If you have a safety deposit box or something similar, make TWO backups and store the second backup in that safety deposit box or similar.

The process for the professional backups that I used to do was a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly backup.
The daily backup took about an hour.
The weekly backup took about six hours.
The weekly backup was then taken to an offsite storage locker.
The monthly backup took a full day and it also was taken to an offsite storage locker.
The quarterly backup took a whole weekend and it was taken to the very same offsite storage locker.
The yearly backup also took a whole weekend and like all the others, it too was taken to an offsite storage locker - AND a second copy of the yearly backup was made and shipped off to the home office.

These backups were all done on an IBM AS/400 midrange computer in Boise, Idaho networked into a mainframe in Shaumberg, Illinois and another smaller AS/400 in Sioux City, Iowa. Other similar AS/400s around the country tapped in to our system every day and took data from it and had their data manipulated on it.

All these backups were done with tape because at the time, writing to CDs and DVDs was not an option. That technology was not commonly available at that time. Tapes are more dependable and longer lasting than CDs or DVDs but the tape technology seems to have faded greatly where CDs and now DVDs seem to be a preferred method due to convenience.

[hoops]

thank you paul... i'm on it
pace
hoops