CDRW.
With the speed and economy of CDR media, you can back up your whole o/s and
data for $1.00 and do so for 1000 times (CDRW) on the same discs.
Get a good CDRW (TEAC, Sony, Plextor, Yamaha) 12x10x32 CDRW and Drive Image
4.0 or Norton Ghost 2001 ($20).
Partition your hard drive to keep your o/s seperate from your
applications/data that are more dynamic.
Make backup cd's of your o/s (W98,W2k) using DI4.0 or NG2001.
Make backup of your application partition once you've installed and have
everything running.
You will have cloned you hdd.  You can wipe everything out and simply
re-install with in 30-60 minutes, depending on the size of your stuff.

Routinely, you should backup your registry files.  Keep dated (weekly)
registry backups.
Use a packet writing software like RSJ CDWriter or similar that lets your
CDRW act as a floppy drive. In win98, use abCD software.
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