Large capacity external hard drives are nothing new. In fact, the price of external drives continues to come down, making it easier and less expensive to back up documents, media and even software programs. But Seagate is pursuing a new line of external drives designed to make upgrading your computer a snap. The company’s new Replica hard drives will back up not only your work and media, but every single file in a Windows-based PC, including the operating system.

The idea is simple but useful: create an exact mirror image of everything on the users PC, including operating system, preferences; and right down to the last incidental or nonessential file. But, and this is critical, Seagate is quick to point out that the Replica drives are not intended for backing up individual documents or other user files. In fact, the drives do not include a drag-and-drop feature to move specific files from the external drive to your computer — it’s a bit of an all or nothing deal!

The usefulness of the Replica series is obvious. By having a complete mirror image of your entire computer, you can avert disaster if your operating system should crash. The operating system and the entire contents of your PC can be effectively restored by the Replica in as little as 40 minutes (depending of course on how many stored files you have on your computer).

After restoring your PC, the Replica will automatically back up your system incrementally as your configuration or user preferences change. The smallest drive in the series is the 250 GB Replica. It is designed to back up only a single PC. There is also a 500 GB version that comes with a docking station and according to Seagate, will back up “multiple” PCs.

The 250 GB single PC version is priced at about 130 US dollars, while the 500 GB “multiple” PC version is priced (quite reasonably) at only $200, making the “Replica” and inexpensive and easy to use backup solution for PC users. It could also make the process of upgrading to a new laptop or home PC much easier by removing all the guesswork from the process, and ensuring that your new computer contains all of the files and user preferences of your old system.

Unfortunately, Seagate has not seen fit to develop a Mac version of the Replica — its PC only for now. But then again, Mac computers already have access to the Apple Time Machine software for backing up the contents of their drive, so perhaps there is less of a need for a complete mirror image drive within the Mac community.

But for PC Windows users, the Replica series could be just what the doctor ordered, providing security against lost files and configurations, while making it a breeze to upgrade your computer.