One of the things I hate doing the most after a computer crash is reloading all 
my applications.

I have recently discovered that "Stealth" applications or applications that don't 
need to be installed in combination with a portable 2.5" hard drive is the 
perfect solution.

Most computers you purchase now will either come with a restore disc or a 
restore volume on the internal hard drive, which means you can completely 
restore your computers operating system in under an hour but all the 
application and games you might like can take several hours after that.  This is 
where Stealth applications come in.

Backing up your portable drive a couple times a week will make sure that even if 
your portable drive fails you are only a couple clicks away from a complete 
restore.

Portable hard drives are very common now, all of the chain electronics stores 
carry them.  They come in different sizes, capacity, colors and some even have 
software pre-loaded on them already.

Below are just some of the applications I keep on my portable hard drive, I get 
these applications from the following sites: www.portableapps.com and  
www.portablefreeware.com, I have linked all these applications to these web 
sites.