help one more time?
 

i need recommendations for free backup software that copies files and folders (rather than compressing them) intact to another drive...

it needs to copy incrementally (as files are changed?) and in real-time...

and finally i need it to keep the last few (five?) versions, not just the one copy that has been most recently changed...

any suggestions?

I know this doesn't directly answer your question, but I've been pimping mozy.com in another thread, and it does basically what you're talking about, but to their web site rather than to a drive. Carbonite is another good option that has similar functionality.

They both cost money (~$50 per year) though.

Depending on how much stuff you have, http://www.getdropbox.com might be an option as well. It's free for now, though I'm sure they'll start charging for it once it gets out of beta. Drop me a PM if you want to give it a try.