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At our company we are not using a source control so we do backup manually.
My habit is like this: I backup only scripts where I removed code snippets, and those scripts where I only added code snippets I don't backup.
Is it reasonable to backup each time when you change something, or there are some conditions for file subversion? And when we backup changed files, should we only backup that file or all the project?
When you start asking questions like "should I backup everything or only parts", then it is time to introduce source control (heck, you should introduce source control before such questions arise). Now. No excuses. Checkin whenever you have finished a small feature slice, and backup the repo daily.
As with everything that has been said here -> introduce source control.
If I had a penny for every time that I've read about (or heard from friend's about personal) projects that have either had to be scrapped or started over because they didn't have source control... you know the rest.
Seriously, you/your company might feel like you don't need source control right now, but as when (and I hope this doesn't happen) someone deletes the wrong file, or makes a mistake, or bit-rot takes a crucial file you'll know why we use source control.
If it's a problem with management (as in they don't want to fork out for it), then inform them that there are free solutions. If they don't want a free solution, do a cost analysis of how much money it would cost to start a given project (or all of them) from scratch vs how much a licence will cost them.
If it isn't a management decision, then get on to who ever makes that decision and inform them that they should be considering source control.
I even use source control in my personal projects. One of my big projects was destroyed due to bit-rot, and once was enough to convince me that I needed some form of remote source control (for the record, I use GitHub for me personal stuff and we use Team Cohesion where I work)
EDIT: I came across a related video, just now. It's about how Pixar nearly lost the entirety of Toy Story 2 when someone keyed in the wrong command - http://www.tested.com/videos/44220-how-pixar-almost-lost-toy-story-2-to-a-bad-backup/
This is like triage, let's fix the obvious things first. So first and foremost, here's 4 of the more well known version control servers, click a link and get installing.
Then, if you go for a centralized VCS, backup your repository once a day.
There's no reason not to, and every reason to do it. It really is step #1 to having a reasonable development environment.
Of course using source control does not immediately mean backing up, especially with DVCS such as git or mercurial. I would REALLY (!!!!) recommend you start using it. The next step would be to sync your local git/mercurial repository with a central server for effective backup. But seriously, in professional software development source control is mandatory. In addition, it takes minimal effort to learn, and it yields big returns.
Use SVN for sure. Makes life super easy.
I usually commit my work twice a day.
Very very important that you get a source control in place...
I back up everything every night onto a series of USB hard disks. The habit helps prevent accidents. I keep one of the disks (taken on a friday) in a different location.
As the others I would also strongly recommend source control.
Use modern source control.
Use a Distributed Version Control System like Mercurial or git (over using svn).
It seems intimidating but given that you can do
sudo apt-get git or sudo apt-get install git-core git-gui git-doc
cd your_dir
git init
See http://help.github.com/linux-set-up-git/ for more info
Why not do it now?
For backups I would store this code on github - https://github.com/
