Tonight I can't try a backup to PC but I will investigate iCloud backup -- thank you for that link. It left me thinking! I think I will use both methods. I will just have to transfer the backup file from PC to external hard drive. I'm still a little concerned about emails I have saved from all accounts. I save emails from AOL, gMail and mail.com. My emails on my server accounts are safe. Can iTunes be, uhhmm, programmed to backup certain files/folders?