diff --git a/tasks/rails_upgrade_tasks.rake b/tasks/rails_upgrade_tasks.rake
index 812d002..cda6aa1 100644
--- a/tasks/rails_upgrade_tasks.rake
+++ b/tasks/rails_upgrade_tasks.rake
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ require 'gemfile_generator'
 require 'application_checker'
 require 'new_configuration_generator'
 
+require 'fileutils'
+
 namespace :rails do
   namespace :upgrade do
     desc "Runs a battery of checks on your Rails 2.x app and generates a report on required upgrades for Rails 3"
@@ -35,5 +37,39 @@ namespace :rails do
       
       puts new_config
     end
+    
+    CLEAR      = "\e[0m"
+    CYAN       = "\e[36m"
+    WHITE      = "\e[37m"
+    
+    desc "Backs up your likely modified files so you can run the Rails 3 generator on your app with little risk"
+    task :backup do
+      files = [".gitignore",
+      "app/controllers/application_controller.rb",
+      "app/helpers/application_helper.rb",
+      "config/routes.rb",
+      "config/environment.rb",
+      "config/environments/*",
+      "config/database.yml",
+      "doc/README_FOR_APP",
+      "test/test_helper.rb"]
+      
+      puts
+      files.each do |f|
+        if File.exist?(f)
+          puts "#{CYAN}* #{CLEAR}backing up #{WHITE}#{f}#{CLEAR} to #{WHITE}#{f}.rails2#{CLEAR}"
+          FileUtils.cp(f, "#{f}.rails2")
+        end
+      end
+      
+      puts
+      puts "This is a list of the files analyzed and backed up (if they existed);\nyou will probably not want the generator to replace them since\nyou probably modified them (but now they're safe if you accidentally do!)."
+      puts
+      
+      files.each do |f|
+        puts "#{CYAN}- #{CLEAR}#{f}"
+      end
+      puts
+    end
   end
 end
\ No newline at end of file