If your data is important, you need a backup strategy.
You'll need to backup your software too. Probably you've tweaked it to
your own liking; in the event off a crash, you would not want to
reinstall every program then update it to its present condition.
You can backup to DVD via Toast5; it considers a DVD just a big CD.
However you will need to also backup to external hard drives (Firewire
400, or 800 with an adapter), not least because their capacity is much
greater.
Another reason is that the DVD produced by Toast may not boot your
computer, even though you told Toast to bless it; whereas backups to
hard drives are always blessed.
Your backup drive should have at least 2 partitions dedicated to
backups of your software and data. You may choose to have separate
partitions for your software and data, in which case you need two of
each. If you have a lot of special data, eg Movies, create two special
partitions for it. Name each partition so it's easy to identity what
each is for.
Your external backup drive should be the BIGGEST and MOST RELIABLE
drive you have. It will hold TWICE the data of your internal drive.
However, very high capacity drives may be less reliable than the old,
smaller, ones, because more & more stuff is being fitted into the same
space.
Prepare your OS 9 backup drive with Disk Utility in 10.4; Erase and
Partition it there, specifying that OS9 drivers be installed on every
partition. The Apple Partition Scheme should be used, not GUID (choose
it under the Partition button). Specify Macintosh EXTENDED formatting,
not Macintosh Standard and NOT JOURNALLED.
When you backup, alternate between two partitions on the backup drive;
eg backup to Backup1 today and Backup2 next time. NEVER overwrite the
last backup. Suppose you backed to Backup1 last time; then you'll
backup to Backup2 today.
There are two ways to do it: as a FULL backup or as an INCREMENTAL
backup; the Incremental one only backs up what's changed since last
time.
For a FULL backup, select Backup2 in the Finder, then go to Special
and choose Erase Disk. Erase it; then go to your internal disk and
Select All the files you want to backup, and drag them to Backup2.
For an INCREMENTAL backup, use Retrospect Express and choose
"Duplicate". This works in a similar way to Carbon Copy Cloner in X.
Both produce a blessed backup disk, provided that the internal disk
was blessed. You can then operate your computer from that blessed
external disk. Windows users do not have this great facility.
The files and folders on Backup2 can be individually accessed.
Buy several backup drives, and keep some of your backups offsite;
Offsite Backups give you additional protection.