Maybe you know this already: the cheapest and fastest way to backup is buying a 2nd hard drive and use a backup software (free on the net) that can compress it to a smaller file. I use TASKZIP which is free and backs up all my important files everynight. However, to back up the operating system, I use the NORTON GHOST (not free but cheap) and it does that marvelously and quickly. But if you have XP maybe you don't need this since they have restore function.