Make a system recovery disk, and/or be aware of your system recovery procedures. For example, my new laptop can re-image the hard drive with a series of keystrokes -- which basically means it will erase, reformat, and re-load the drive exactly as it came from the factory.
It can be handy to install a utility that will uncompress .zip files. Personally, I use 7zip. It is open-source (read: Free, with no nag screens telling you to buy), it has a high compression ration (does a good job of turning big files in to much smaller files), and can open a variety of compressed files, including those that are a bit more common outside the Windows environment (.gz, .tar, etc) as well as structures that are more common outside the U.S. (.rar, etc).
http://www.7-zip.org/
When you download software such as Firefox, etc., it will create a download file. Make a copy of the download file and store it with your backed up material.
When backing up your files, don't forget to back up your browser book marks as well.
Backups are a matter of managing risk...or perhaps I should say...balancing risk with what someone is most likely to do.
Most online backup services offer iPod-sized backups. 5GB, 25 GB, 100 GB. This is fine for backing up documents. It may work for backing up MP3-formatted music. For larger files such as videos, uncompressed music, photographs, these sizes are impractically small.
On the flip side, online backup services make for no drives to lose, or get stolen, and no cables to keep track of.
All methods involve some security risk. When you put your material on someone else's domain, you lose control over it. It *will* get duplicated, after all, they back up their own servers, too..
That risk goes up against the risk you face doing your own backups. Someone broke in to my garage as I was moving in. The thief stole a few things including one of my backup drives, which thankfully had nothing on it except for some MP3s. There are backup drives with biometric (fingerprint) security available for a little bit higher cost and larger size...I personally haven't gone there myself. So, for someone that does their own backups...how safe is the "off site" location, and how likely is the person to visit there on a regular basis? I often keep my backup drive at the office, because I'm more likely to go there than down to Mass., where my safety deposit box is located.
No right or wrong answer here, its more a matter of which scenario best fits what the user is willing, and likely, to perform.
