I just bought a Lacie 1tb external drive.
Despite my recent problem with a lacie drive I
bought the 1tb.

what methods should I take to ensure everything is backed up on my back up?
simple and silly question, but who would have thought a back up drive would fail? But apparently they do.

I have two external drives (500G a piece) and I sometimes back up important files and finished projects on DVD's and file them. I don't back up everything that way, just the important stuff that would be instant "Personal Armageddon" if I lost them.
Hope that helps a bit

I store archival material on mirrored RAIDs.

When you move a file onto them, it instantly writes to a pair of drives simultaneously, ensuring an immediate backup in case one of the drives should fail.