[TriLUG] noob backup options?

[Kevin Hunter]

Hullo List,

I'm excited that I've finally convinced my father that he would be
better served by his computer if it were running Linux.  I feel that
most distros are now to the point of usability, even for him.  I've got
all of his software needs covered.  What I am not yet able to help with
is a backup solution.  Granted he has no backup solution now, but he's
asked for one in this next iteration.

My problem is that I've never had to worry about backing up my data so
I'm not sure how to council/help him.  What are some of my options at
this point?  My constraint is money (as always, right?), at about $100
for the entire backup system.

I was initially thinking that I'd mdadm his system with a new drive, but
now I'm wondering if he wouldn't be well served by having a revision
system set up as well.  Something like having an SVN repository on
another drive.  That's annoying for him because then he'd have .svn/
directories all over the place.  (Which actually, since he'll *never*
use the cmdline, wouldn't be such a big deal, eh?)

Any thoughts to get me started?

Thanks in advance,

Kevin