I’m doing it now.
Gonna take up four gigs of hard disk space, but I think its gonna be worth it in the event of a crash/error/problem.
Any one else done so/doing so?
Nope. Not yet anyway.
4GB!
Is Steam actually worth the space is takes or do you have to have it for multiplayer?
It said 4 gigs during the process, but the file is actually only 2.5gigs for me.
I think the back up is in case you f*ck up your system and have to format the disk. Thus losing HL2. If you try and activate it again, the CD key may not work, and therefore renders the game useless. The backup proves the game is yours, and it doesn’t matter if you lose the original installation, so long as you got the backup.
Must be hell for dial up users.
What are steam files?
Sorry for bein stupid
Half Life 2 + Counter Strike:Source files.
ooo why would you bother backing those up?
Never mind i read above
Backing up is slightly pointless, anyone who purchased and preloaded HL2/CS:S is thick anyway 
Buy on the CD, then u just got to download the updates.. which are nothing..