System Backup. How do I do it?

[Calvados]

Friends keep telling me I should back my system up in case it crashes or gets a virus and I have to wipe the hard drive. What does this involve? Will I need a few CD's or is there special ones for this? How do I wipe the hard drive anyway? I hope I never have to do this but I know one or two people that have had to do it, so better to be prepared. TIA.

[Motoko2501]

Buy an external Hard Drive with a USB attachment, download some free back up software and proceed from there r you can just back your files up by using the " drag and drop method "

I'd recommend Samsung Hard Drives if you can get one. I've learned my lessons about backing up, I once lost 250GB of work, which is a shame to me as an I.T technician =(

But seriously babe, get your stuff backed up, this is the voice of experience talking xxx

[deggers316]

buy an external hard drive there not that expensive do a back up on that
google how to back up a hard drive its easy

[Donquixote]

Trying to back up your entire system onto CD would take FOREVER!!! If you could even do it at all. You need an external HDD (Hard Disk Drive). You can pick them up for very sensible money now; a 1tb USB external HDD will cost around £80, smaller capacity drives even less. ( Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation ) So if your computer's HDD is only, say, 250gb you'll only need a 500gb external HDD at most.
How you backup depends on whether you use a Mac or Windows PC, but in both cases it's quite simple and their are dedicated programs within each system to enable you to do this.
Hope this helps.