I'm not a smart man, please explain Lion if say my hard drive dies

[hal]

I HOPE this isn't what apple is up to, but to restore from a time machine backup should only require the time machine drive and your computer's original restore DVD (as long as it's 10.5 or later)

but there is no way in hell this is an image ONLY thing - LOTS and LOTS of people still do not have broadband or easy access to an applestore.