Compaq Presario 5000 Model 5BW220, built 7/19/00, 15G master drive, 40G slave drive, 630 MHz Intel Celeron processor, 512MB RAM, Compaq 06C0 motherboard

I want to back up my HDs. What is the best way to do it? I at least want to back up the master drive, but ideally both. The options I've seen with the little research I've done are: IDE raid card, True Image software, backing up stuff with cds and dvds, or having an external hard drive or zip drive. Isn't mirroring A LOT easier than backing stuff up all the time? It seems like people would mirror their HDs more than it seems they do. With mirroring HDs can be replaced when they actually go bad not just because they're old which is a waste. My understanding of computers is basic. Any replies would be appreciated.

The tried and true method is to use Norton Ghost. I have tried Acronis True Image, and Paragon drive copy with some success and a lot of failures. I have gone back to using Ghost and it has not failed me since the time i first tried it and made a image wrong. heres a good tutorial, and you can buy Ghost pretty cheaply on Ebay.

http://ghost.radified.com/

SRX660