Backing up a Mac, External hard drive... Options

[soramimicake]

Hello!

I decided that I finally need to have a back-up of the files on my Mac, but I don't really know a whole lot about it. I'm trying to decide both on what kind of an external hard drive I should get and what software I should use to transfer files to that hard drive. So, does anybody have any suggestions on hard drive type or software?

For the external hard drive itself, I'd like a fairly cheap one, but I also don't want to sacrifice cost for quality. I also want it to be small and portable. I've also heard that a Firewire port is important?

For the software, I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.11. Is it worth upgrading to Leopard to get Time Machine, or is there a better software to use?

Thanks!

[batman]

ah fack, i should probably invest in another external harddrive and start actually using time machine. my mac scared me to death last night. it kept staying at the blue screen and refused to do anything else, plus i don't have the install disc on me atm. was about to go to apple store at 2am and remembered i wasn't in nyc T_T

anyway, it suddenly started working this morning, but i figure it's time to back shit up just in case i get another scare.

so how exactly does time machine work? do i get to select what i want backed up and how often? does it compress everything? bc the last time i tried, it said that my external didn't have enough memory (the thing was ancient) :(

wish i wasn't so computertarded