ramstein, If you have been making backups to optical media - be aware these loose data starting from 1 year after burn. DVD (re)writables will hold their data secure a little bit longer, but are unsafe too. CD (re)writables will definitely have lost data within 5 years after burn, and be completely useless in 5-10 years. The only safe way to make a backup is to magnetic media. Tape/Hard drives are still the most reliable. There are several manufacturers of so-called mobile frames, where you insert a standard HD into a frame that slots-in into a 5" bay mobile frame. Some of these are even "hot swappable"- meaning you can change drives while the computer is running. There are several utilities to bring back data from a crashed HD that lost data (
http://www.grc.com's SpinRight is an example of this. FarStone technology's RestoreIT will make incremental backups to a hidden partition on a drive or a second drive (burning to CD/DVD is possible), and when needed will restore lost data before windows starts. They've recently struck a deal to package it with several major Intel MoBo producers and have been awarded patents for this utility. you can read more at
http://www.farstone.com check Software- Recovery in the menu there.
SpinRight can be found at
http://www.grc.com (Home of ShieldsUp! online security test)