Re:you haven't thought this through (Score 1)

Something like CrashPlan (http://www.crashplan.com) may be just what you're looking for. There are Home and Business systems, Win, Lin, Mac and Solaris options. The home option allows for backup online to their service or, through a buddy system (read other family members in your case) you can backup to multiple offsite locations (family computers) for free. Basic client is like $60 and that's it if you do the BYOB method. It's fast, it's fully encrypted prior to leaving your computer, it's smart (no duplicates, accessible anywhere, tons of options: scheduling, realtime backup, network and cpu throttling, great compression, storage quotas etc) and they are readying a new rev that will speed up transfers around 400%--according to a recent blog post (http://crashplan.blogspot.com). It's a nobrainer to setup. I've got a small business setup with them for about 30 systems and the server side is just as easy to setup. Their support is free, fast, efficient, effective, and curteous. They don't support bare-metal restore and are clear about that but I don't think you are looking for bm. I have restored several times with great success. Backup sucks for reasons we are all all-too aware of. Obviously, each situation requires a unique solution, which explains the plethora of vendors and methods out there. It's important that each constituent understands the full capability of whatever system you end up implementing, and the limits therein. Good luck.