TO follow on from the query about an external HD for backup, are external HDs the only game in town right now for economical and hassle free backup? I like the idea of something a bit more permanent, but it's not exactly straightforward to backup 100GB of data to DVDs – are tape drives too expensive compared to a HD?

Should be able to get a cheap LTO-1 drive second-hand, tapes are about £20, you'd need a SCSI card as well for the PC.