Having to evacuate almost every summer for hurricanes and/or flash floods (in Louisiana) I've learned to keep a lot of stuff on computer instead of paper. Once a week, I back up ALL GENEALOGY FILES to a flash drive... If I have an evening where I do a super amount of data entry and editing, I back up at that point, too. For those who don't know what a flash drive is, I call it a "stick drive" --- a flat object, 2 to 3" long and 3/4" wide, that plugs in to a USB port and holds a lot more than any set of disks... also tinier and easier to pack. They are re-usable (unlike CD's), and relatively inexpensive. They come in a variety of sizes. I buy the ones that come on a string that hangs around your neck. I have two of them... one I use for genealogy only (4 Gb), and a second one for everything else, like inventories, insurance info, contact lists, account numbers, etc. (2 Gb)... I pick different colors so I can tell them apart. For genealogy files, I usually look for green -- G = Genealogy. All digital documents, all photos to put with genealogy data, all notes are in computer files and when I head out, its one of the first things I grab. I keep them with my keys, glasses and purse, with the laptop so I don't hunt for them. Next to the laptop is a small plastic box with original CD's for Windows, Office, and Family TreeMaker .. just in case. Even if I decide to bring my laptop, I know how easily that can be damaged in the moving around. The flash drives and CD's give me peace of mind! The genealogy (4 Gb) drive right now has some 500 pages of notes (word proc), my FamilyTreemaker files for 4 different major branches, about 450 digital documents (birth, marr, burial), dozens of census records, and about 100 old photos... and there's still space. Eventually I'll replace it with an 8 Gb, when the prices on those come down a little more. When a friend's system crashed during evacuation last summer, and she needed to re-install MS Office, she had to buy it all over again, even tho the chain store she originally purchased the computer from had the record of her purchase on its computers .... expensive lesson! Now I bring my originals with me just in case. When there's no time to look for them, they're right there with the laptop, in plain view. Sister Therese Gregoire Lacombe, Louisiana (originally from Lowell) _________________________________________________________________ You live life online. So we put Windows on the web. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/127032869/direct/01/