Backup my computer to a dvd or cd?

Im having some trouble with XP on my laptop and I would like to wipe the whole HD clean. I do not know where my laptops recovery disks are, does anyone know how to create your own? My orignal plan was to wipe out HD containing windows xp, install linux. If linux proved to be even worse than XP, i'd reinstal my XP. Im not sure how to dual boot XP or linux at the same time...I have a 80GB HD and 1GB of RAM. Intel centrinoBackup my computer to a dvd or cd?
If you're backing up your entire laptop, that would be quite a lot of dvds... best you got an external hard drive.Nero and common burning programs come with backup tools.If you can, copy or burn all your important files to discs/hard drive, download all the drivers for your laptop (and burn them to a disc or copy to hard drive), format, reinstall Windows, reinstall drivers, reinstall program and restore data. It's not streamlined as recovery diskes, but hey, it's one way..Backup my computer to a dvd or cd?
If I were you i'd get a external hard drive, as it saves a lot of hassel figuring out what to put on each dvd. 3.5'' drives can be had really cheap now. $65 for 250gb and then $20 or so for a external enclosuer. The only problem with 3.5'' external drives is they need a power supply of their own, you can get around this by paying a bit more for a 2.5'' external drive.