I can't stress how important it is to backup your data. The fact is, equipment fails. Software fails even more frequently. If you have only one copy of your important data, and the device storing it fails, everything is lost. So the key theme in backing up your data is to duplicate it on multiple devices/computers, and even in multiple locations. For even if you have your data backed up on two devices, if both of those devices are in the same house, and the house is burglarized, or involved in a fire etc.. You stand the risk of still losing all your data. So depending on the value you hold on your data we recommend backing it up not only locally, but even to a remote server. There are many sites that offer remote storage for free, (as do we).

  Now as far as methods of backing up your data, the number one way I would recommend would be to buy a flash drive and put your important files on it. Flash drives are nice because their portable, so you can take them with you. Their small, so you can put them in things like fireproof safes easy enough. Their solid state which means there is no moving parts in them. No moving parts means they are much less likely to fail like a hard drive would. These days the capacity they hold exceeds what most peoples hard drives can hold. Plus if you shop right you can get ones that are nearly indestructable, and waterproof.

  With the advancements in networking technology, and with the number of computers increasing in each household, another efficient method to backup data is to copy it from one computer to another. You can do this either by sharing files and folders, then accessing them through "my network places" from the other computer. If you don't have them networked together you can still duplicated it using a flash drive as mentioned above and simply copy it to the flash drive, and from there to your second computer.

  The third way I would recommend backing up your data is to burn it on cd's. These tend to stand the test of time too, but the downside is that they are bulky and most are not re-writable. The ones that are have the potential to "wear out" thus jeapordizing the safety of your data.