Several years ago I bought a computer clone. It is a backup system that automatically keeps everything from your computer backed up. It was about 100  Gigs and $100. When I moved, I set it back up again, as best I could, the company is no longer in service and I lost the instructions.  Not long ago, my hard drive had a total failure. It was a 500 gig drive and I was able to replace it for $59. When I went to see if the back up had worked, I was pleased to find that it worked just great and I had saved everything, except my email and contacts. I found out later that error was my fault, I hadn't checked that box to save them.

 The whole point of this post is to say that if you don't have an adequate back up, there is no reason for it. While in Walmart the other day, I saw a 500 gig external drive that included back up soft ware for $59. It has a USB plug and it don't take much to set it up.

If I didn't have my outdated backup, I would have one of these. Mine even backed up my desktop. What a relief.

 

Remember that given enough time, your computer WILL crash.

Excellent point Ron! I have one of those high powered external drives like you see at Walmart. I have a 700 gig that cost around what you saw, very easy to use.

I am really glad you got back what you lost. I have been through this before without back up, and what a pain.

Congrats on the restore, and the desktop even! Nice!

Backups are always a good thing to have. I also recommend to people to save pictures off to CD's or DVD's and store them in a good safe place. I know of several that have lost hard drives and didn't have a backup and lost all of their pictures.

 

John, I have over 16 gigs of pictures, not only on backup, but on DVDs too.  If I lose everything else, I still have my picures.

John Moody said:

Backups are always a good thing to have. I also recommend to people to save pictures off to CD's or DVD's and store them in a good safe place. I know of several that have lost hard drives and didn't have a backup and lost all of their pictures.