Time Machine Doesn't B/U & Has No Backup Disks??

I really need to back my computer up because I have a ton of files on this thing and I haven't backed up  in possibly years. 
The time machine asks me if I want to set up.... I select the option to do so... But where it asks me to choose a backup disk, it's empty.  There are no disks to choose from.  Time capsule is out of the question and I really don't know what to do at this point.  I even tried deleting TM and then reinstalling it from the original disks BUT I couldn't freaking find the application. 
Any suggestions or answers that can help me???  Thank you soooo much in advance. 
Abby

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.
Time Machine is only a software program. It expects to use another hard disk for backups. For a laptop, that usually means purchasing an external hard disk drive and connecting it via USB cable.
If you already have an external backup drive connected and have never used it, perhaps it is not yet formatted for your Mac? Most external drives come pre-formatted for Windows, unless the package specifically mentions that it is ready for Mac and OS X.
You would use Disk Utility to examine, partition, and format your external hard drive, if necessary.
(I purposely named my external backup drive 'Time Machine 1Tb' to avoid confusion.)
If you need to purchase an external drive, enter 'external backup drives for mac' into a popular search engine to see some of the choices available.

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