[JavaBrewer]

I don't bother with backing up the OS & applications. I keep all my personal files organized under a single folder (my laptop) or second drive (workstation). It will have folders for mainly static stuff (music/pictures/etc...) and folders for dynamic stuff (docs/development code). Every week or so I plug in a USB drive and copy the dynamic folders over. The static stuff (much larger) gets copied only when it was modified locally. Easy to mange and OS neutral - I do this across PC/Linux/Mac.

All of this means nothing if all the backup devices are lost in a home fire or theft. Cloud backup will become the norm in just a few more years. For your super critical files it makes sense today.