Best way to backup to external HD

i know this topic has been extensively discussed previously, so my apologies as i couldn't find anything to specifically answer my question.
I’m wondering what the best way to backup my files would be. I just bought an external 80 gig WD hard drive, and I’d love to know if there’s any better way than to just drag & drop my music, movie, picture, and document folders onto this every so often…if it’s 3rd party software you recommend, I’m a starving student so I’d prefer to not spend a lot of money.
Also, should I partition the external hd so that I can boot from tiger in case of an emergency? And how would this be done?
thanks in advance for any information that can be provided. This forum is such a great resource to the apple community, so for all you problem solving posters, YOU’RE AWESOME.

There's really only the drag and drop method if there are programs for transfer it's undoubtedly a rip off. Also I wouldn't partition your drive so it'll be less cluttered.
But if you're concerned about speed here's a few ideas: you can put all your files into a folder and that may improve speed [similar to burning to disk it apportions file size correctly].
Also get a really good short FW/USB cord if you can. I use a 3ft M-Audio and it's very good.
Good Luck

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