I wouldnt be too disheartened... that is exactly how a lot of businesses especially the Small Medium Business/Enterprises are doing their backups... Tape drives are too expensive, as are the tapes... then the special software and admin costs are enormous!

Your best bet, and what I've set up for many customers, is to purchase a Maxtor backup Kit (i think other manufactures have kits too). This kit is a USB2.0 External harddrive with 1 touch automatic backup or scheduled automatic backup So just plug it in, use their software to configure the backup directories and options etc, then you can sleep a good nite rest