History Main / BodyBackupDrive

*** In the [[ComicBook/XMenTheKrakoanAge The Krakoa Age]], 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...

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': [[spoiler:In the final episode, the Guardian explains that after her sacrifice, [[Characters/AmphibiaAnneBoonchuy Anne Boonchuy]] is now in a backed-up version of her body prior to her death. For all intents and purposes, that makes her the original, BackFromTheDead, but she mentions the possibility of having [[CloneAngst an existential crisis]] upon learning the revelation.]]

* ''ComicBook/CaptainVictoryAndTheGalacticRangers'': The first issue has Captain Victory die and come back by having his memories transferred into a freshly cloned body, albeit without any recollection of dying in the first place and having to be told what happened once the procedure is finished.

* One of the more sinister reveals in ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfileSilmeria'' is that [[spoiler: Rufus is one of these for Odin, should the latter die]]. The character in question keeps it a secret as long as possible, in no small part because they want to avoid that fate if at all possible. It later turns out that this status is key to saving the world - [[spoiler: Rufus can inherit Odin's power without being taken over by him, which is necessary to prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt]].

%%* Diehard of ''ComicBook/{{Youngblood}}'' had this as one of his abilities in the earlier issues.

* The titular ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' had a backup army of clones, at least until their dad had to stop cloning them for legal reasons (and all the clones were wiped out).

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

* Jenna Black's ''[[Literature/ReplicaSeries Replica]]'': How the titular technology works. When someone dies of an unnatural cause (accident, murder etc.) a replacement body has the individual's stored memories downloaded into it.

* [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordePrime Horde Prime]] in ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' uses this as his schtick. While he can possess any of his clones, he appears to use specialized ones for his primary vessel, and can access the memories of any previous vessel if he desires it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', Rick attempts this in "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS2E7BigTroubleInLittleSanchez Big Trouble at Little Sanchez]]", uploading his mind into a teenage clone of himself so he could have high school adventures with his grandkids, only for the clone body to subsume his real self with his youthful enthusiasm. Upon returning to his original body, he proceeds to dub "Project Phoenix" a failure and destroy all the other clone bodies he's made with an ax. However, the later episode "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat" shows Rick found out how to make full-grown clones on-demand if he dies, and even if ''that'' doesn't work, his mind will still be uploaded into the clones of [[TheMultiverse another universe's]] Rick.
* Horde Prime in ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' uses this as his schtick. While he can possess any of his clones, he appears to use specialized ones for his primary vessel, and can access the memories of any previous vessel if he desires it.

* In "[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/16840177/chapters/39532987 Far From Home]]" of ''Fanfic/RoseRedemptionAU'', Rose manages to regain a body by taking possession of an emerging Rose Quartz soldier.

* Everyone in the cities in ''Literature/BitingTheSun'' is promptly picked up and has their "life-spark" transferred into a new body of their choosing upon death. Some characters actually take advantage of this to get around the normal time limit for body changes.

** In his ''Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy'' the cabal who secretly control Earth ensure their continued rule this way, by instantly killing the old body after having their memories transferred to a new one, even editing out those memories they don't want to keep. However the revelation that the souls of the dead pass on to an afterlife means that rather than a form of immortality, they're sending those souls to the Beyond each time a body is destroyed.

* ''[[Literature/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 failure--[[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath slowly, painfully,]] often via... ''[[CruelAndUnusualDeath creative]]'' [[ColdBloodedTorture methods]]--then immediately reanimated 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 object lesson.

* In ''Literature/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.
* ''Literature/{{Skinned}}'':
** The "mechs" 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.
** 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.

* In ''Literature/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.

* Used as a plot-point in the 2004 Award-Winning Manhua, ''Manhua/MyBelovedMother'': 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]].

* 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 get them killed at least once in the course of any given mission.
* ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' borrows the cortical stack concept from the ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' series, where BrainUploading had rendered people as software and bodies (referred to as "sleeves") are reasonably considered to be interchangeable hardware. Unlike the Kovacs novels, externally stored "backups" are considerably more common instead of being exclusive to the wealthy.

* Cubes in ''TabletopGame/{{Infinity}}'' back up memory for recovery if the host dies. The Combined Army even has a gun, the sepsitor, that implants viruses into the cube to take control of the host.
* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'': An exceptionally powerful Fetch -- an ArtificialHuman 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.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'':
** [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-03-20 In an early strip]] Schlock and Reverend Theo Forbus discuss the BrainUploading variant of this trope and why it isn't ''necessarily'' immortality.
** [[spoiler: Petey]] is effectively immortal, now that he has the resources to build as many bodies as he wants. [[spoiler: He may even be Type XI immortal, because his bodies are linked via hypernet nodes, and he sends several on suicide missions.]]
** [[spoiler: Petey]] has also done this for other characters, notably [[spoiler: Schlock]] after he got himself KilledOffForReal. It often involved making a copy of their memories and biological data without their consent.
** There is now the [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2015-04-25 Laz Scale]], for measuring how dead someone is on a scale of 1-5.
** Thanks to {{Nanomachines}} backing up his brain scans to remote storage, his HeroicSacrifice only costs [[spoiler:Captain Tagon]] the last [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-12-09 forty-two minutes]] of his memories, four months in virtual reality while his replacement body grows, and the unerasable knowledge that the original version of himself is [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-12-31 dead.]]
--->'''[[spoiler:Captain Tagon]]:''' I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about this.\\
'''Karl Tagon:''' Start with "grateful". If he hadn't died, you wouldn't be here.

* Quine in the webcomic ''{{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.

* All the named robots in ''Webcomic/{{Vexxarr}}'' have numerous backups. It first came up when Minionbot briefly converted to Zen Buddhism in an early arc but changed his mind when Carl threatened to overwrite his backup disc with [=MP3s=], he later got a set of spare heads in case of LogicBomb. Carl himself has a closet full of fully aware backups.
* ''Webcomic/SunsetGrill'' has The Emperor, named Alexander, who was the first for whom this worked. In fact, it's part of the reason he became The Emperor in the first place.

* Selenis Zea from Webcomic/SupermassiveBlackHoleAStar possessed a functional cloning facility that transfers her memories and personality upon her death(s) to a new body.

* ''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 [[RaisedAsAHost 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]].

* Used on occasion in ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
** In ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', Megatron goes through about four different bodies in a single episode. Throughout the entire series, he occupies his ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' 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.
** Also, in ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'', after Demolisher is blown up, Megatron builds him a new body and sticks his spark into it, but not before reformatting it to remove Demolisher's pesky morality.

* The titular ''[[WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers Venture Bros.]]'' had a backup army of clones, at least until their dad had to stop cloning them for legal reasons (and all the clones were wiped out).

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', Rick attempts this in "Big Trouble at Little Sanchez", uploading his mind into a teenage clone of himself so he could have high school adventures with his grandkids, only for the clone body to subsume his real self with his youthful enthusiasm. Upon returning to his original body, he proceeds to dub "Project Phoenix" a failure and destroy all the other clone bodies he's made with an ax. However, the later episode "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat" shows Rick found out how to make full-grown clones on-demand if he dies, and even if ''that'' doesn't work, his mind will still be uploaded into the clones of [[TheMultiverse another universe's]] Rick.

* Horde Prime in ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' uses this as his schtick. While he can possess any of his clones, he appears to use specialized ones for his primary vessel, and can access the memories of any previous vessel if he desires it.

* Most Inner and Middle sphere polities in ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' have routine backups mandatory for their citizens. Though there are a couple exceptions who don't subscribe to "pattern continuity theory" and consider backups to be different people than the originals, at most a legal heir.

* The Asgard in ''Series/StargateSG1'' make great use of this, with people like Thor being downloaded into a new cloned body any time one takes critical damage. Thor spent an extended amount of time with his brain inside a ship's computer before he could be downloaded. It's also known that the Asgard have long been unable to reproduce, and cloning is how they've long made more of themselves. It's unknown if this means there have been no truly ''new'' Asgard for a very long time. (What we ''do'' know is that the process can't be kept up forever; each copy of a copy of a copy is subject to a bit more degradation, making extinction a matter of time.
** The only reason their bodies are subject to clone degradation is because they haven't thought to keep the original DNA on file. If they had, they never would've had this problem, as they would be always cloning the original (i.e. not degraded) DNA.

* 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.

* In ''Literature/AncillaryJustice'', [[TheEmperor Anaander Mianaai]] has [[HiveMind a few thousand]] running around to oversee [[TheEmpire the Radch's]] expansion, giving her an odd sort of functional immortality.
** This can also happen to a ship's AI if one of its [[MeatPuppet ancillary bodies]] isn't destroyed with the main section of the AI.

* ''Series/The100''. When a Commander dies, their memories and consciousness are stored on a computer chip inserted in the back of their head, called "the Flame". This Flame is then passed on to the next Commander, who can commune with the past Commanders and access their memories, though they retain control of their own body.

* ''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 acquired after the back-up was made 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.

* A variation on this is what happens to [[spoiler:Jean-Luc Picard]] in the first season finale of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' when [[spoiler:he succumbs to his long-lasting neurodegenerative disease; Noonien Soong’s son Altan electronically transfers his mind into an ArtificialHuman-like robotic body that is crafted to resemble Picard, i.e. a RobotMe.]] In the sixth episode of the third season, [[spoiler:Altan is revealed to have this to himself upon his original body’s death with a robot duplicate of his own.]]

* A variation on this is what happens to [[spoiler:Jean-Luc Picard]] in the first season finale of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' when [[spoiler:he succumbs to his long-lasting neurodegenerative disease; Noonien Soong’s son Altan electronically transfers his mind into an ArtificialHuman-like robotic body that is crafted to resemble Picard.]] In the sixth episode of the third season, [[spoiler:Altan is revealed to have this to himself upon his original body’s death with a robot duplicate of his own.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', Rick attempts this in "Big Trouble at Little Sanchez", uploading his mind into a teenage clone of himself so he could have high school adventures with his grandkids, only for the clone body to subsume his real self with his youthful enthusiasm. Upon returning to his original body, he proceeds to dub "Project Phoenix" a failure and destroy all the other clone bodies he's made with an ax. However, the later episode "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat" shows Rick found out to make full-grown clones on-demand if he dies, and even if ''that'' doesn't work, his mind will still be uploaded into the clones of [[TheMultiverse another universe's]] Rick.