History Main / BodyBackupDrive

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* In ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'', [[spoiler:Aozaki Touko]] created a process to create exact copies of her body and mind that's so indistinguishable she realized her own individuality was meaningless, as the copy could perfectly carry on as her itself. [[spoiler:Further she's connected a magical feed from the current her to her copies, making them perfect duplicates mentally as well, with a new one awakening to become Touko whenever the current Touko is killed.]]

* ''Anime/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 monster that later fell into pieces, it seems she got her wish.\
** ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' suggests she is horrified by the Dummy System, a digital version of this, thus she would be completely opposed to using her for something so completely barbaric.

* Part of [[BigBad Ryuzu Myoujin]]'s evil plan in ''Anime/CardfightVanguardG'' involves summoning [[LivingMacGuffin Living MacGuffins]] from another planet, a process that is CastFromHitPoints and inflicts RapidAging on him. By the time the heroes first confront him, he's physically an old man and is severely ill, so he lets himself die in a fire and resurrects himself in a child clone body to continue his work. In this [[CreepyChild form]] he would remain the BigBad for the rest of the season.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''/''Franchise/StarWars''[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]], the Reapers destroy Pandora's New-U system, forcing the Vault Hunters to be extremely careful as they attempt to hijack a Hyperion starship. They survive anyway. The system remains out of commission in ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', the sequel, as well, in which several characters [[DiscussedTrope comment on]] missing the tech.

* In ''Anime/RebornToMasterTheBlade'', this is a perk enjoyed solely by the technologically advanced Highlanders. Among their incredible pieces of {{Magitek}} is the ability to transfer their consciousnesses into new, younger bodies when the originals become too diseased, crippled, or just too old. This is primarily shown by [[spoiler:Mynntia/Sir Rambach]], who was too old when he successfully ascended himself and his son to Highlander status and got a much younger replacement body as part of the deal.
* In ''LightNovel/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' [[spoiler:Kumoko]] develops a method of transferring her soul into eggs she had previously laid in a safe location, allowing her to survive otherwise inescapable attacks.

* ''Anime/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 monster that later fell into pieces, it seems she got her wish.

[[folder:Manhwa]]
* Used as a plot-point in the 2004 Award-Winning Manhwa, ''My Beloved Mother'': The protagonist, Sinbell, is a teen RaisedByRobots and often misses his biological single mother, who mysteriously disappeared when he was four, and completely rejects his robotic mother, despite her repeated efforts to win over his love no matter what. The final chapter provides TheReveal of a flashback which is a borderline {{Teajerker}}: [[spoiler: Sinbell's biological mother, Aya, gave up her life to save him from a chemical explosion that destroys half the city, resulting in the then 5-year-old Sinbell losing memory of his childhood. Aya's last wishes is for her consciousness to be uploaded into an experimental robot, so that she may continue her motherly duties]].

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Part of the grand plan of [[BigBad the Other]]/[[spoiler:Lucrezia Mongfish]] involved this. It was planned that [[spoiler:the main character Agatha Heterodyne]] would be [[RaisedAsAVessel sired so that the Other could have a backup body]] to return to the world to. But [[spoiler:Agatha managed to fight against the Other's mind-control, ultimately {{def|iedTrope}}ying this trope]].

* Robots built in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' have a wireless backup unit that save a copy of them every day, so if their bodies get killed, they'd just [[HeartDrive download into another body]]. [[spoiler:With the notable exception of Bender.]]

* Nearly everybody has these in ''Webcomic/{{Serix}}'', at least those that choose to live in physical reality rather than existing entirely on the [[Cyberspace [=MindNet=]]].

*** In the ''ComicBook/DawnOfX'' era, the Krakoans use this method should they die. There are five mutants -- appropriately named the Five -- whose mutant powers work in unison to form a brand-new body before a telepath uses Cerebro to imprint their consciousness into their body, allowing them to live once again. Of course, there's a few rules to these...

->''"Disorientation, visual and auditory hallucinations, and even low-grade amnesia are normal. But don't worry. This orientation will answer all of your questions. This is a cortical stack. As Protectorate citizens, we each have one implanted when we are one year old. Inside is pure human mind, coded and stored as DHF: Digital Human Freight. Your consciousness can be downloaded into any stack, in any sleeve. You can even needlecast in minutes to a sleeve anywhere in the Settled Worlds. A sleeve is replaceable. But if your stack is destroyed, [[KilledOffForReal you die]]."''

-->-- OpeningNarration, ''Series/AlteredCarbon''

* Carol Malus Dienheim of ''Anime/{{Symphogear}} GX'', being an alchemist, would use this tactic quite often. However,[[MySkullRunnethOver over time the mental strain got so bad that the one time we see it used, her body outright tried to reject her.]]

* Spartan from ''ComicBook/WildCATsWildStorm'' had this ability, being an android and all.
* ''ComicBook/THUNDERAgents'': [=NoMan=] is a dead scientist whose brain/consciousness resides in a robot body; when he's in danger of being destroyed he can transfer to a new robot. But if his robot body is destroyed while he's still in it, he dies.
* ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'': The handicapped Roger 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 consciousness is transferred to Box until they can find him a new body. They think they found one out in interdimensional space, but it turns out that it's [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk the Hulk]]. Langkowski, unwilling to rob Bruce Banner of his own body, decides to let his soul dissipate. It doesn't, however, and he ends up doing a little {{Body Surf}}ing, including another stop in the Box robot, before getting a new body that's eventually reshaped by [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence that body's ascended soul]] into an exact duplicate of his original.
* Emperor Palpatine was reborn in a clone body sometime after dying in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', as seen in the ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire'' series. He dies a few more times, but his supply of backup clones gets sabotaged and after his last death he can't come back anymore due to [[spoiler:a dying Jedi dragging Palpatine's soul with him into the afterlife, preventing him from taking the last-ditch option of possessing an unwilling host]].
* In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, the original Hate-Monger is what you get if you [[YouClonedHitler apply this concept to Adolf Hitler]]. [[MadScientist Arnim Zola]], who created the process, also used it to save the [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull Red Skull]] from death by old age, by transferring his mind into a cloned body of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica himself.
* The biochips grant G.I.s this ability in ''ComicBook/RogueTrooper''.
* Proto-biochips also appear in some early ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' strips in much larger form, though they do become smaller as time goes on. ''ComicBook/TheSimpingDetective'' has disposable versions that allowed a person to take control of another if they manage to get them to ingest it, as Jack discovers when Meekly Roth [[spoiler: aka his former lover, ex-Judge Freedi Dree]] uses one to get him to help her commit suicide.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': [[Characters/SupermanBrainiacCharacter Brainiac]] pretty much never dies because there's always some drone or ship or piece of hardware somewhere carrying a backup of him.
%% * Diehard of ''ComicBook/{{Youngblood}}'' had this as one of his abilities in the earlier issues.
* [[AiIsACrapshoot Two]]'s favourite method of escaping in ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'', usually when the situation is truly desperate,like risking to being deleted or blown up. He tries his best from stopping his "twin" One in doing the same.
* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
** When Professor X was possessed by a Brood embryo that turned his body into one of its own kind, his life was saved when his consciousness survived the transformation long enough for alien technology to clone a new body for Xavier and transfer his mind into the new form (simultaneously restoring his ability to walk).
** In the ''ComicBook/DawnOfX'' era, the Krakoans use this method should they die. There are five mutants -- the Five -- whose mutant powers work in unison to form a brand-new body before a telepath uses Cerebro to imprint their consciousness into their body, allowing them to live once again. Of course, there's a few rules to these...
* ''ComicBook/{{Eternal}}'' deconstructs this by featuring an entire world where this technology is possible. People who were not cloned are exploited for their pure dna. There are also things called 'death parties' where teenagers killed themselves for the fun of it.
* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': [[Characters/BatmanRasAlGhul Ra's al Ghul]] generally considers his children and their descendant's bodies as another way to extend his immortality, and during ''The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul'' story arc tries to get Bruce to [[SadisticChoice chose]] between Bruce's biological son and Ra's grandson [[Characters/RobinDamianWayne Damian]] or Bruce's recently adopted son [[Characters/RobinTimDrake Tim]] as a new body for Ra's. Bruce of course [[TakeAThirdOption takes a third option]].
* ''ComicBook/DCComicsBombshells'': The magic that [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]] inherited from [[ComicBook/WonderWoman Diana]] causes one of her tears falling on a pottery statue of Diana to transform it into a new incarnation of Diana, also created from clay and magic. The new Diana specifically states that she isn't exactly the same person as the original and be formed using Donna's memories of her, although she appears to have at least some of her own memories.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Earth-One Aphrodite treats versions of Steve Trevor from other universes as handy back up bodies for the memories and essence of the Earth-One Steve. As a gift to Diana she brought Earth-270 Steve to Earth-One, erased his memories and implanted the memories and essence of the deceased local Steve.

* In ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', Robo-Robotnik had this ability, as he was a normal Robotnik roboticized. However, when an alien race kidnapped him, Snively, Sonic and Tails and put them through a robots vs. humans battle, he lost this ability, trapping him in his Eggman form permanently.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'': An exceptionally powerful Fetch -- an ArtificalHuman left to [[CaptureAndReplicate replace]] a True Fae's kidnapping victim -- can learn to craft a backup body out of junk and a piece of its own flesh. It transforms into an apparently human body and wakes up in full health within 12 hours if the Fetch is ever killed.

* ''Series/AlteredCarbon''. Anyone with enough money can "re-sleeve" themselves into a new body, even after they die, provided their stack isn't destroyed. The ultra-wealthy or 'Meths' have back-ups from which they can be re-sleeved even if their primary stack is destroyed, but all data after the back-up will be lost. The first season has the protagonist being hired by a Meth who was DrivenToSuicide and wants him to investigate the reason behind it, since he has no memory of that event.

* ''Series/AlteredCarbon''. Anyone with enough money can "re-sleeve" themselves into a new body, even after they die, provided their stack isn't destroyed.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', The Computer is aware of the importance of backups, so all citizens are part of a six-pack of clones [[note]]in the latest versions, you can buy more, but they're pricey[[/note]] - 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.

* In the good ending of the fourth installment of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'', one is conveniently used to bring Millium back to life.

* This is the secret behind the immortality of ''Literature/BobMorane'''s nemesis Monsieur Ming aka [[YellowPeril "The Yellow Shadow"]].

* This is the secret behind the immortality of ''WesternAnimation/BobMorane'''s nemesis [[YellowPeril Monsieur Ming]].

* In ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'', [[spoiler:Aozaki Touko]] has done this at least once, having created an exact copy of her body that's so close to the original that they're virtually indistinguishable.

* In ''Anime/GundamBuildDiverReRise''. the [=BUILD DiVERS=] team discovers that the "campaign" they had been playing in their favorite VRMMORPG was in fact a series of very real battles on an alien planet that had somehow connected to the game. The ruins they emerged from every time they "logged in" would construct bodies for them in the form of their game avatars and download their minds into them from the game. Another player whom had gone to the world before them had been trapped(and his body on Earth in a coma) after he got captured and brainwashed by the enemy.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'', [[spoiler:Baymax performs a HeroicSacrifice to save Hiro and Abagail Callohaun, with his last words to Hiro being "I will always be with you". Turns out it was a LiteralMetaphor as he had left his program card with Hiro, enabling to the boy to revive him after building a new body for him]].