I don't need to tell you that you ought to keep current backups of all your files. But what's the best way to do it?

Floppy disks are probably a bad bet at this point, as your next computer will most likely not have a floppy drive.

I have been keeping backups on CD-RWs (re-writeable CDs) for some time now, and they should be a good option for some time to come, but the writing's on the wall for CDs, too. DVDs are now the present standard, and higer density DVDs are coming soon.

Flash-based RAM, those little keychain thinggies that plug into a USB port are a great alternative. The USB port will be with us for a long time, and these "thumb-drives" let you carry your files with you wherever you go, which is great if you use more than one computer. I have a 1-gigabyte model that lets me carry everything I've ever written, plus backups for two different websites I maintain, and still leaves me plenty of room to move music, photos and programs around.

A good strategy, for "off-site storage" is email. With services like Gmail offering a gigabyte of storage, most users have more room than they'll ever use. Just email your files to yourself as attachments, and you'll always be able to get to your stuff from any computer connected to the Internet. I'm not the only person to have thought of this -- you can get a free program at PC World that will make Gmail look like a disk drive on "My Computer" that you can just drag-and-drop files to, making backups to Gmail even easier. (BTW, if you'd like a free Gmail account, you need an invitation; I've got plenty to give, so just drop me an email at brian.plante@gmail.com and I'll send you one).

Every so often, I see some magazine say that their next issue will be delayed or submissions were lost because of a hard drive crash. This is such a lame excuse these days that I always wonder if this is a ruse to cover up some other problem. There is just no excuse to skip backups when there are so many options.