It's generally considered polite to reply within the discussion instead of a peer message, especially if you don't know the other member that well (yet). I'm not offended, but there some would be. I'm quoting your peer message to me here:
"My thoughts were that if I had to evacuate then maybe an external drive, then I could use any computer to access my data even a library computer. What I am not sure about is putting a backup on an external device or an image of my desktop hard drive.
I live in Florida and until this year I had not thought of taking any of my computer with me. But it's time to plan."
I see a couple of problems with the external device approach.
One is the assumption that you'd be allowed to connect to a public system such as a library or net cafe. Many do not allow external devices to be connected for security reasons.
The other is the assumption that whatever computer you connect to, public or private, that the system has the applications needed to open your data. MS Office files probably wouldn't an issue, but what about Quicken or Money? If you have any applications even slightly out of the ordinary, you may have a hard time finding another system with that program installed.
(Yeah, I hear all you open source advocates out there. "If you were running Linux this wouldn't be a problem. You could hook up the external drive and then use the package manager to download the apps you need. Hell, most Live CD's probably already have your apps on them; if not, you could build your own." Point noted.)
Edited - I missed your comment about an image of your hard drive. You're going to have a very hard time finding someone willing to allow you to install an image of your hard drive. That's going to require them losing everything they have on the target drive.
