There are numerous ways you can lose the information on your computer. Your child decides to play Chopin on your keyboard, a power surge, lightening, a virus, or even simple equipment failure. Therefore, backing up the contents of your hard drive is an absolute MUST.  By regularly making backup copies of your files and storing them in a separate location, you can typically get some, if not all, of your information back in the event your computer crashes. While a regular backup to floppy, CD, or zip drive will save your files, wouldn't it be great if you could create an exact copy (a drive image) of your hard disk?.That means backups of all your files, programs, and user settings.  This would definitely save you time in event of neccesity.