I haven't tried Opera {Firefox fan LOL}
why not go back to Firefox??
Netscape is nice too-the built in security features are nice

when i download programs or files or drivers I save the downloaded files in a folder named dnloads. Then if i need to reinstall i still can use those.
but in case of a hard drive or system crash you need to have them on a spare HD or copied on to a disk or CD.

I had to redo my whole system from scratch about 2 months ago so I know what you are talking about.

But I haven't copied/backed my stuff up yet either.