public enemy said:
what about under disk utility- what is the deal with disk permissions? can you burn a disk under that? is that a backup option as well?
You're confusing your terminology here.
1) "Disk Permissions" are just that. OS X is a unix-like OS and everything has permissions (meaning, who can read/write/execute files). Repairing these permissions is advisable after installing anything that requires an admin password. I could get into the details, but there's a million places to search that will tell you and no need to rehash old hat. Permissions has nothing to do with back up.
2) Using Disk Utility, you can burn a DISC (note: it ends in a C), meaning CDs or DVDs. However, Disk Utility isn't required for this. You can simply insert a blank CD or DVD and it will appear on your Desktop and you can drag & drop files onto it and then eject the mounted disc to burn it.
3) Using Disk Utility, you can copy a DISK (note: it ends in K), meaning you can copy one hard drive to another hard drive (or a disk image, but this can get confusing, so don't worry about it).
If you want a COMPLETE back up that you can boot from, in case of failure, you should consider an external hard drive and clone your powerbook to the external periodically using something like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. There is automatic back up software out there too, like Retrospect.
If you simply want to back up your own data from your home directory, go with a DVD-RW or CD-RW (depending on how much data you have to back up).
Ultimately, the important part is to back up. It's FAR cheaper to observe due diligence and make good periodic back ups, then it is to try and get critical data recovered off a failed hard drive.
