Obviously I did not go far enough in my opinion of backups. No backup is permanent. Even backups have to be updated from time to time. It does not matter what you consider a safe backup for your information - it has to be kept up to date. Floppies of 15 years ago are going to b e hard to get any info off of today - why? Because finding a PC that has a 5 1/4 drive outside of the Smithsonian is next to impossible and because floppies did not last forever - they deteriorate over time. Even if you could get the info, it's probably not the latest and greatest info available today. The same would be true if you just printed what you had 15 years ago. The same is true of photos of your house, furniture, jewelry or whatever! So sit down and think about what you are trying to accomplish and how often you will likely need to create another backup - or at least update what you have.. By the way - the old 5 1/4 diskettes were called 'floppies' because they were flexible - unlike the 3 1/2's of today. Bev