I have 4 internal SATA 1TB drives in my Mac Pro. The first is my os x drive, the 2nd, my time machine. 3rd and 4th don't matter :) Anyhow, I use Time Machine for those "oh I lost a file or contact" moments. Small data that you can restore easily, and quickly. As far as new machines or wipes, I still use cloning. Be it Super Duper or even Carbon Copy Cloner, keep a clone! This machine gets cloned once a week to a drive that goes offsite. I don't archive to cd/dvd media simply because you have to worry about shelf life. Go get a little 200 gig firelite drive for that kind of stuff if you can. Or use an offsite / iDisk type solution. If you are real geeky, get a hostgator.com account. 4-5 dollars a month and they give you 350 gigs! This is my email/web host but you can ftp in no problem.