Hello all. I have a very simple question about backing up some files on my HD. I apologize if I'm not posting this in the right section, since this question isn't by any means specific to macs. Hopefully some of you will be able to guide me.

I have a (purchased) copy of Reason 3.0, which I use extensively, on my current computer, a G4 Powerbook. I've given some thought lately to backing up my hard drive. My question is this: to register my copy of Reason, I had to put in an authentication code that came with my copy of the software. If I were to back-up my HD by copying the files from the Reason folder onto a DVD, it seems to me that the backed-up copy would essentially be the unregistered version of Reason. What I want to know is this: is there any way I can back-up a registered copy of the program so that if my HD were to crash and I had to reinstall the program, my computer would already recognize it as a previously registered copy? I hope my question makes sense. Let me know If I can clarify anything. Thanks very much for your help.

My suggestion would be to get yourself a firewire external hard drive, format it as HFS+, then use either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your startup disk to the external. If your startup disk crashes you can then have a bootable backup drive that you can use. When you have replaced the crashed drive on your Mac with a new drive, you can then clone the external back to the new hard drive and get back to using your Mac without re-installing everything, including licensed copies of programs.

Thank you for your help. I will look into getting ahold of those programs.

Your welcome Just remember to keep the bootable backup current.