Back in the '80s, pop stars Madonna and Sting sang about living in a "material world." Nowadays, many of our most valuable possessions _ documents, correspondence, music, video, photographs and more _ reside only as digital bits on a hard-disk drive or flash memory that could go "poof" in a computer crash.

Here are some backup products that will save those treasures. Better yet, they're easy to use and reasonably priced.

'THE DIGITAL SPARE TIRE': That's what CMS Products president Ken Burke calls his $160 (in 160 GB form) ABSplus external laptop backup and recovery drive with BounceBack Ultimate software. It's the first product that this established business-tech company is also directing at the consumer market.

Yes, there are dozens of external drives that can back up the data on your computer's disk drive. But the BounceBack Ultimate software preloaded on ABSplus drives (available separately for under $100) lets these storage devices do a lot more.

BounceBack copies ALL the software on your Windows XP or Vista PC (not Macs, sorry). That includes the massive core of the operating system, usually not saved by a backup drive.

Whenever you plug it in, it makes a snapshot/update of everything that's changed. Plus, the device features "Instant PC Recovery" recuperative powers (patent pending).

So if your OS malfunctions or your hard drive freezes, just shut off the computer, then restart. The little external ABSplus drive will take over the role of primary drive either to reload an earlier version of the main drive's contents (before a file corrupted or a virus snuck in) or to run the show for a day, a week _ as long as necessary.

IT'S MAGIC: "Having our drive available for instant replacement takes the pressure off," said Burke. "You don't have to pay an expert a ton of money to recover information from a bad disk. You know, those guys set their fee based on the tone of desperation in your voice."

ABSplus also lets you synchronize the contents of similar office and home computers. Just move the palm-sized, lightweight drive from PC to PC, plug it in and watch everything update. Sensitive files can be secured with encryption. And reasonably sturdy construction _ with memory foam surrounding the drive _ helps the device take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.

WE PLUG IN: I must caution that I ran into complications trying to connect an ABSplus drive to a five-year-old Sony Vaio laptop. Later, I found a note on the CMS Web site that it's best to use BounceBack Ultimate software with computers made in 2006 or later.