Very good (and funny) screed on backing up your data from Jamie Zawinski:
BackupsWhat follows is very good but oriented towards Mac and Linux. I have a couple of machines running Linux. For the laptop and photo/email/music machines I use Acronis. Decent software for the $$$. As for when to restore?
Hello, this is a public service announcement. I am here to tell you about backups. It's very simple.
Option 1: Learn not to care about your data. Don't save any old email, use a film camera, and only listen to physical CDs and not MP3s. If you have no posessions, you have nothing to lose.
Option 2 goes like this:
When (WHEN) your backup drive goes bad, which you will notice because your last backup failed, replace it immediately. This is your number one priority. Don't wait until the weekend when you have time, do it now, before you so much as touch your computer again. Do it before goddamned breakfast. The universe tends toward maximum irony. Don't push it.Maximum Irony indeed... BTDTGTTS (Been There, Done That, Got The Tee Shirt)
Ah, jwz, father of the bouncing cow. Hat's off to ya.
My personal recommendation for backups is amanda. I have not come across any commercial software (even the large scale high end stuff) that even comes close to it's scheduling capabilities. All you have to do is get past the whole "full backups on friday" mentality and let her handle it.