Why should you backup your gmail account? You might ask. Well there are a number of good reasons. First and foremost is that it is quite possible for someone to hack into your gmail account and delete all your data. Or more likely someone could hack into your gmail and send out spam then google would close your account.
Good luck calling google for tech support if that happens. I've heard nightmare stories about this.
I used a backup utility that I found online and it works quite well.
It's called, "Gmail Backup". I know not very original name.
http://download.cnet.com/Gmail-Backup/3000-2369_4-10903796.html
