Thanks for all the help... and a backup question

[zoe at purdue.edu]

Thanks for all of the suggestions,  I haven't had time to try much of it yet, 
but I will get around to that over the next week or so.

I should have the ram problem solved, a friend from the states is sending me 
256mb that he isn't using at the moment.

I have a 160gb hard drive (with external firewire enclosure) which I would like 
to back up and put to use, as the 4,3 gig that I have at the moment really 
isn't enough.  At the moment it is HFS+ (I don't believe it is possible to 
mount this, is it?) and contains all that remains of my Mac User days.  I have 
a friend with a powerbook which I could borrow, however it only has a CD 
burner.  I am planning to buy up the DVD burner on Monday when they will be in 
stock.  

I know nothing about burning software on linux,  (I imagine there is a simple 
command-line tool capable of these things) Is it be possible to burn my files 
from the hard drive to DVD by mounting the Drive on the powerbook and 
connecting the two machines through ethernet?  (Does Ethernet have enough 
bandwith to keep up with the drive?  If I pick a low burn speed might this be 
possible?  Would I have to make image files of all the files to be backed up 
first, or can is there a way to burn files directly to disc?)  

Is this even the best way to approach the problem?

Thanks,

-Zoe