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We all know we should back up stuff, well just as well I did. Computer developed an "error" and the only way around it was to wipe the hard drive. Yes it has taken some time to re install windows, and almost as long to put all "my bits" on the PC.
my point being I was able to do this because I had back ups.

Have you got back ups of everything useful?

someone-else wrote:We all know we should back up stuff, well just as well I did. Computer developed an "error" and the only way around it was to wipe the hard drive. Yes it has taken some time to re install windows, and almost as long to put all "my bits" on the PC.
my point being I was able to do this because I had back ups.

Have you got back ups of everything useful?

I have a nas drive with twin drives in mirror formation. All things I want to keep are on it and if one drive ever failed I simply remove it, add a new one and everything is copied to the new one. It's really handy as everything is accessible via home network via any device connected to the router.

Everything important is backed up onto a another HDD and really important stuff is also on 2 cloud accounts.

Everything is (fairly!) regularly backed up onto two HDDs stored in different places.
Copies of important stuff encrypted on "the cloud" and on a memory stick as well.

There's a problem with relying on stuff that's connected all the time. Voltage spike, fire or flood and you can lose the lot.

Data needs to be stored in different places. Preferably different buildings.

I know 3 people personally who have lost data just due to voltage spikes.
Another one, a relative of an online contact, lost everything in a fire.

ETA For a long time now I've had separate drives for storage and for system. I've had a couple of system problems, and at least haven't had to restore all my image files and so on.

Cloud backup is great if you have multiple devices too, I can access important files easily across several devices.

Highly recommend backups and don't leave your photos in just one place.

The amount of people I see (I'm an IT Tech) put all their photos onto an external USB drive and that's their only copy.

ALWAYS keep your data in more than one place!

Agreed Backup are an essential no brainer. My recommendation is primarily to an offsite location for critical data as its not affected by fire flood theft etc and as others have said you can backup multiple devices and restore to them which suits me as I travel a lot. Most broadband packages come with some form of cloud option BT is free up a point albeit the app is not the best but it comes with enough free space for most people. Obviously if you have TB plus of photos then a backup drive maybe a preferred option. I find BT the best option for me as I have found performance to be most consistent ( I cannot get cable) plus I use all the add on apps which they includes. So any savings from other operators and the savings are not enough to risk the aggro changing.

Backup is important but restoration is critical and so many folks never attempt this until a problem occurs. In fact in my experience many small and medium businesses do not either which means that you never know if you have uncorrupted backups to restore from until that fateful day you are forced to try. So I would recommend all to at least do one practice restore just to test the backups are OK. Even if for simplicity it is only a partial restore.

Good luck