I picked up a couple of 120GB Inland SSDs for $10 or $12 right after Thanksgiving from MicroCenter. Get a USB to SATA connector for about $10, and start a text file with useful commands like this one: xcopy "C:\Important Files" D:\Backup /c /d /e /h /i /k /q /r /s /x /y I assume you are running some version of Winders.

Setting up a RAID 1, using two drives is pretty easy, if you are looking for a NAS solution. Many wifi routers have USB ports with some rudimentary NAS features built into them. I don't use a NAS for backup purposes, but they are nice to share files with any computers in the house on the same network.

Because I wanted to get my family into the habit of being responsible for their own data, I provided everyone with a USB drive. As stated above, USB drives, purchased from MicroCenter or the Internet are very reasonably priced. They are not speedy in data movement, but they have pretty impressive storage capacity for their size and cost. Teach everyone how to copy folders containing data from their machine onto the USB drive. Let them know that they can backup data every hour, every day, every week, whatever interval suits them. Some users learn faster than others, but all of my users learned that THEY are responsible for their data...not Dad.

You probably already have most of what you need to do backups. The hardware has been pretty darn reliable for years. The weakness in most backup systems is the users who do not take responsibility for their data. Everything fails at some point. How much data can you afford to lose, or how much effort are you willing to put into maintaining your data? Once you've backed up your data, consider cloning the drive on a set interval and keeping a copy elsewhere. DD is the best, free disk cloning application I have ever used, and I have used a lot of forensic software.