I also use an online storage site, but I do other backups also, not just one. The best thing is to image the drive with a program that takes a snapshot of the entire drive operating system and all like Acronis True Image.
Nothing wrong with reputable online storage though. I just don't trust all my eggs in one basket.

ok thanks! good to know

Raven, can you explain what you back up. I just back my personal stuff ever so often, I don't know exactly what you all back up.

Well I do use an image program which takes a snap shot of your entire drive so that backs up every single thing. Of course we hope our image will be a good one!

I also do some manual backups of my entire My Documents folder, which has my pictures, music, and important docs and all of my downloads, anything I save that is important to me I create a folder under My Documents so when I do a backup it will be saved. I use xmarks which backs up and synchronizes all of my firefox bookmarks but I do also manually on occasion do a backup of my firefox bookmarks file and the profile. I always do a backup of the I386 for my windows, and usually settings. It varies with which pc it is and which OS.
Linux is a bit different.
Redundancy is just a good habit when it comes to backup. I do not do it as often as I should however.

Thanks Raven I do most of what you mentioned except the snap shot. I tried a total back up once and it didn't work. After a trip and I download my photos or re organize my music, I definitely do a back up. Those are the things I don't want to lose. Converting all of my music to MP3's is something I really don't want to do again, very boring and time consuming.

this link is to a new free program that will do the image, I have not used it but it has been recommended by some good folks. It also has the ability to securely wipe a hard drive clean for those cases when you need to give it away and want to be sure all your info is gone.
CopyWipe

Hi RC,I've followed this thread from beginning to end and understand what is posted here. What I need to know now is where is this snapshot of the os image stored for future use? Surely it's burned to a dvd,a secondary hd or an external hd, etc. Am I on track so far? Somewhere in the future the original hd crashes, malfunctions or just quits. Do I then physically remove it, set the secondary hd on which exists the snap shot, to primary function, if this be my chosen media, and boot up? If I had chosen to go the dvd route, do I replace the old hd with a new one and use the dvd to install the snap shot image? And in case of an external hd, can it's content incuding the snapshot image be copied over to the new hd?
I realize we're covering a lot of ground here and I beg your patience. Please keep it simple as possible. I'd like to get this issue staight in my mind one time. I also understand this can only be done with the original computer the os was installed on. Thanks.

pretty much all of the methods you mentioned can be used. Say for example you do a windows update which causes your computer to no longer function properly (I choose this because that has happened to many) you can then use your previous image which you stored to cd, dvd, external hard drive, partition on existing drive, flash drive etc to restore your system back to how it was prior to the problem.
If the hard drive fails then yes you would then have to replace the hard drive with either a new one or the back up one, with a new one you would then put your image onto the new drive from your stored source.

Here is a very good tutorial on how to use Acronis which may help you get a better understanding. There are other programs but they are quite similar.
Using Acronis
Creating a Hard Drive Image using Acronis
Hard Drive Image Restore using Acronis
Creating a Bootable CD using Acronis