backup question

[Rich Braun]

I use a script which pipes the output of find into cpio, but I'm concerned
about my ability to restore files in the event of a catastrophic disk
failure.  Suppose the root filesystem gets trashed; can I bring the system
back up from a tape produced in this way?

My system came pre-loaded.  How do I construct a bootable floppy which can
be used for booting if the system fails?  (I would RTFM, but IBM has a
policy of handing out manuals on disk rather than on paper.  In the event
of a catastropic failure, my manuals would therefore be unavailable,
unless I had some way of fishing them off a tape under a non-IBM operating
system.)

-rich