History Main / BodyBackupDrive

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'''s Rei Ayanami has a few dozen soulless clones stored in an LCL tank. Every time she dies (happened twice so far), her soul is transferred into a new body and she's ready to go with no injuries and temporary amnesia. Despite being only fourteen years old, she states in episode 25 that she'd rather stay dead for good; seeing that all her clones have been destroyed two episodes prior and her current body was absorbed into a CosmicHorror that later fell into pieces, it seems she got her wish.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', The Computer is aware of the importance of backups, so all citizens are part of a six-pack of clones [[hottip:* :in the latest versions, you can buy more, but they're pricey]] - when one dies, his memories (including how he died) are [[WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture MemoMaxed]] into his next-of-clone, who picks up wherever he left off. Especially important for the [=PCs=], whose high-risk careers as Troubleshooters tend to [[KillEmAll get them killed at least once]] in the course of any given mission.

* Semi-example in ''RedDwarf'', where holograms can be made, instead of new bodies, but all ship crewmembers have their consciousness stored.

* Quine in the webcomic ''{{Starslip}}'' does this. If his body is killed, a new one is created in a cloning tank on board ship and his consciousness downloaded into it.
* Discussed and deconstructed in the webcomic ''{{Freefall}}'' in relation to robots' minds. They can be backed up and downloaded into another body, but the main characters meet two robots who chose not to be backed up because from their perspective they're just as dead either way.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', The Computer is aware of the importance of backups, so all citizens are part of a six-pack of clones [[hottip:* :in the latest versions, you can buy more, but they're pricey]] - when one dies, his memories (including [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel how he died]]) are [[WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture MemoMaxed]] into his next-of-clone, who picks up wherever he left off. Especially important for the [=PCs=], whose high-risk careers as Troubleshooters tend to [[KillEmAll get them killed at least once]] in the course of any given mission.

* In the book ''Glasshouse'', all humans avoid aging and repair injury by building themselves new bodies in "assembler gates". They also back-up their minds, so if they die they just come back to life, not knowing that anything happened. The only way people can make death permanent is by erasing someone's memories from the databases.

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* The Agents of ''TheMatrix'' have this power. Whenever one of them dies (and killing them is [[ImplacableMan no mean feat]]) they can just find another hapless human to download themselves into and get back into the game.
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** In ''BeastMachines'', Megatron goes through about four different bodies in a single episode. Throughout the entire series, he occupies his ''Beast Wars'' body, a big giant head, a tank Vehicon, a jet Vehicon, a random maintenance droid, and a beast-mode-less Optimus Primal's "Optimal Optimus" body.

* VitaStations serve a similar function for the protagonists of ''BioShock'' and the sequel.

* ''[[TheCallistaTrilogy Darksaber]]'' features Bevel Lemelisk, chief designer of the Death Star, as a major character. Prominent mention is given to how the Emperor used to have him executed for his failures - [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath slowly, painfully,]] often via... ''[[CruelAndUnusualDeath creative]]'' [[ColdBloodedTorture methods]] - then immediately reanimate him in a cloned body. He would often "awaken" to find his corpse still nearby, apparently in case the horrible, horrible death he'd just suffered wasn't enough of an abject lesson.
* In JohnVarley's EightWorlds series, the technology exists to make a copy of a person's memories, and to grow a clone from a tissue sample. Life insurance now consists of going in for annual (or more often, if you can afford it) backups of your memories, and if you get killed, your insurance company grows a clone, and loads your memories into it.

* The player-characters of ''{{Borderlands}}'' possess immortality through the New-U stations (save checkpoints) they come across. If they do take too much damage and subsequently bleed out, they are simply cloned and deposited back at the last New-U station they passed. For a fee.

* In the OrsonScottCard short story ''Fat Farm'', the protagonist, a glutton, has his mind moved to new, svelte cloned bodies on a regular basis. The TwilightZoneTwist is that the "cast-off bodies," who expect to be coddled, are instead pressed into slave labor. The 'original' is their boss.

** In ''BeastMachines'', Megatron goes through about four different bodies in a single episode. Throughout the entire series, he occupies his ''Beast Wars'' body, a big giant head, a tank Vehicon, a jet Vehicon, a random maintenance droid, and Optimus Primal's pre-''Beast Wars'' body.

* Yes Man in ''FalloutNewVegas'' is the king of this trope. Every time the player character kills him, he is just uploaded in another robot. This could go forever, making him one of the few immortal characters in the game.

* The titular ''VentureBrothers'' had a backup army of clones, at least until their dad had to stop cloning them for legal reasons.

* Brainiac 5 did this in LegionofSuperheroes, which sort of made his heroic sacrifice and Superman's weeping over a fallen comrade much ado about nothing.

* The "mechs" in ''{{Skinned}}'' are like this. Every night, they have to manually upload the events of that day to a backup hard drive held by the organization that built the mechs, which is then uploaded to a new body should something happen. Note that this is only for mechs who live a conventional life; those off the grid have no means of saving a backup.

* ''{{Skinned}}'' by Robin Wasserman plays this for drama. The main character, Lia Kahn, gets into a car accident that does so much damage that the doctors at the hospital downloaded a copy of her personality into an artificial body and her organic body is, for all intents and purposes, dead. Lia is not happy about this because in the setting of the novel, people who have artificial bodies are subjected to FantasticRacism.

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* An ''Aborted Arc'' for Data in the ''StarTrek'' movies would have his consciousness transfered to B-4 ( his "brother", who had was not completely intelligent) after his death in ''StarTrekNemesis'', literally taking over B-4's body. This is later explored in the Expanded Universe.
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* ''AlphaFlight'': The handicapped Robert Bochs has a robot body called Box which he can transfer into and out of at will. During one story arc when Walter Langkowski (Sasquatch) dies his conciousness is transferred to Box until they can find him a new body. They think they found one out in deep space, but it turns out that it's TheHulk. Langkowski decides to let his soul dissipate.
* ''SavageDragon'' featured a number of characters with PowerArmor who had previously downloaded their brainwaves into the suit, allowing them to continue fighting long after death.

''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Sheldon wants to do this, but is concerned that the technology won't be ready by the time his body dies.

* Brainiac 5 did this in [[LegionofSuperheroes]], which sort of made his heroic sacrifice and Superman's weeping over a fallen comrade much ado about nothing.