I've written this article before. Why am I writing it again? Because I keep hearing the same thing from people. Here is how the conversation goes:

"My hard drive makes a clanking sound when I turn it on."

"That's not good. Your hard drive has probably failed."

"Aaaack! ...all my photos, business accounting, and documents are on it! Help!"

"Oh, don't worry, it's pretty easy to restore your data from a backup." (This is said with much sympathy.)

"Backup? I don't have a backup!"

This is usually when the person either starts to cry uncontrollably or yell, "No, no, no, it can't be!"

It really is a sad situation...with digital cameras, email, accounting, and everything else we do on the computer, it is amazing to me that people don't consider the need to back up their files. Your computer will fail, your hard drive will die...it is not if, but when. You need to be prepared.

Several options exist:

1. Buy some blank CDs and copy all of your important files from My Documents to the burnable CD. Don't forget to finish the "burn process."

2. External "thumb drives" can be used to store a copy of important files.

3. A second hard drive can be installed and used to make a mirrored copy of your regular hard drive.