The verge have an article on the options available to backup your PC or Mac.

The article takes a look at both hardware and software solutions as well as The cloud, RAID, and NAS with some interesting facts thrown in for good measure:

Google did an extensive, five-year study on the failure rate of consumer hard drives and found that age has the most direct correlation with hard drive death - drives either fail right away, or start to degrade after the second year mark.

While it is included free of charge, even Microsoft admits that only five percent of Windows customers make use of Windows Backup - a clear indication that the process is more convoluted than it should be.

Its a comprehensive read, which you can find here.

Sooner or Later, your Hard Drive will Fail is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!