I too had been on the look out for a simple file backup prog...
I have just tried Karen's Replicator.
(
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp#Download )
It does save the files without compression etc - they appear and are accessable immediately from the backup destination.
XP backup saves in a file eg. 'Backup-010508.bkf' this is only accessable from XP backup... Not easy to have a quick shufty.
Replicator also produces an easily accessable log file for each backup - selectable content.
Just backed 120 MB, 192 files, from 21 folders on the timer - in 4 secs... I could then access the files using wind's explorer or associated progs 'Word' - .doc etc.
Appears to be a neat data backup solution.