As Mike/slave described, I used to use Iomega zip disks and utilities to backup. These utilites compressed the data so they didn't take as much room, but the process was always a pain for me so I seldom did it and held my breathe a lot.

I got a new computer a couple of years ago with a CDRW drive so I use that to backup as boscibo described. It's really just copying files to a CD. I have folders called AAJoan data & AAJoan Photos. ALL of my data, (from WordPerfect, Excel, Calendar Creator, Printshop, Adobe PhotoDeluxe, etc) goes into one of these folders. This way when I go to the C drive, those folders are always easy to find because they are at the top of the list. In Windows, view, I use Details. This way I can see the file extensions and I know which program the file belongs to. When it's time to backup, the files are all in one place. Don't know if this method might be useful. Works for me.

Anyway, my computer crashed last week and a new hard drive is being installed. I lost just a couple weeks of data. When I get it back I will do as basibo described; reinstall all my programs, heee.

Fortunately I have a backup computer so I'm still here!