Of course, and I also have copies of all my mp3s on the same computer with tags setup exactly the same as they are on the empeg. This is why I am the one who does not understand why so many people seem to think a backup tool is necessary :-)

Yes, and I also have the original CDs and installation disks for all of the software on my computer. So why do I bother keeping a fully bootable mirror copy of my C drive on another hard drive?

Because it's a whole lot easier to just use Drive Image to recreate my C: drive after a disaster than it is to reformat the disk, install an operating system, install and configure my software one program at a time, recover the data from whatever backups I had.... 40 minutes of work instead of several weeks. Same goes for the empeg. I don't want to have to reload all of my songs, re-create all of my playlists, try to find and correct all the database errors that I have already found and fixed once already, try and figure out which songs are on my home computer, which songs are on my work computer, etc.

I have said this so many times I am thinking of putting it into a keyboard macro so I can keep saying it with just a single keystroke: "I want a Windows backup utility that, with a single keystroke or icon click will create a complete mirror copy of my empeg onto a local hard drive, without the use of non-standard kernals or third party player applications. The backup doesn't have to be readable, writable, editable, playable, or usable for any damn thing in the world except for one: I want to be able to copy it back into my empeg and have a complete restoration in the event of a system failure. If piracy is a concern, write the software so that it can only write the data back into the same empeg (serial # check?) that wrote it."

I would be quite willing to pay for this software, and suspect that I am not alone in this. Not all of us have Linux computers, or are conversant with FTP, or have the ability to put together a perl script or the like. I just want a "Backup Utility for the Compleat Idiot".

Please?

tanstaafl.