Keep all your charts and other important programs on disk
and keep a system recovery/backup disk as well.

Most folks probably know this, but just in case ... The "system recovery"
disks that come with most notebook computers today (on a CD or in a hidden
partition of the hard drive) wipe out all your data, along with any programs
you installed after you got the machine. They are designed to do that, in
order to return your machine to the way it came to you from the
manufacturer.

What you really want is a utility that will restore your system after a
crash to the way it was the day before the crash. Two that do that are
Norton Ghost (good but a bit awkward to use) from Symantec.com, and Acronis
True Image, much more user-friendly, from Acronis.com. Both retail for under
$50, and are often discounted.

I use Acronis, and make weekly compressed backups of my C: drive onto
external hard drives. I've used it to restore onto a new, bare hard drive
after a disk crash. The entire process took less than 20 minutes and gave me
a computer that was identical to the pre-crash system.

Given the importance of a navigation computer to a cruiser, it makes sense
to have a current "image backup" of the hard drive that can be used to
quickly restore the computer so all applications, charts, etc., are
immediately available.

Oh yeah -- and test the backups! (g)

Alex