For about $70 you can pick up a disc caddy that can create an exact clone of a SATA (the most common in use in PCs) type 1 through 3 hard drive, 2.5" or 3.5". The one I got is made by Aluratek: http://aluratek.com/external-sata-hard-drive-duplicator. It's easy to back up our data files, but not so easy to recover system or application files in the event of a disc crash or other major problem.
You can also use applications like Ghost to clone a hard drive, but I wanted an option that was idiot proof.
Too, when not in use as a disc duplicator, the Aluratek can be used as an external disc caddy plugged into a USB port. Put a hard drive in the caddy and it automatically maps as another drive letter, just like inserting a thumb drive into a USB port. Handy for extra storage space or as another data backup option.With the disc duplicator, I picked up a 500GB hard drive for 50 bucks. I took the existing drive out of my workstation, stuck it and the new drive in the duplicator, pushed two buttons and voila: about 30 minutes later I had an exact, bootable clone of my existing hard drive. The copied drive went back into the manufacturer's packaging and into my safe. Did the same with the 2.5" drive in my laptop. I plan to do a "clone run" again should I ever make major changes to the in-use drive, either profiles or applications.
So now, in a worst-case PC scenario, I can put the cloned drive into the same or a different chassis, and be back up and running immediately (other than possibly needing to update hardware drivers if the disc goes into a new box). I keep my data backed up separately and can restore that to the new drive once it's installed.
I think this is a consideration for anyone comfortable with removing and reinstalling a hard drive...which is awfully simple to do on most desktop or tower PCs. A little trickier with laptops, but still not that difficult. During the past eight years I've had two hard drives crash and now a fried motherboard. Handy peace of mind to have that cloned drive for a little over $100.