Ken, 
 
As far as backing up goes, my computer started to "hiccup" a few weeks ago. I heard a report on the radio about how almost nobody outside the tech geek world backs anything up. I have 1000's of photos from projects and site visits I use for class and presentations. I was sufficiently paranoid to burn everything I have on 8 CD's last week. It was a pain in the ass but I know that if the worst case scenario comes to pass I will at least have my images. Your issue reinforces my paranoia and I will keep backing up things in the future. 
 
I also heard that the life of a hard drive is a real crap shoot. They are not engineered to last long due to the rapid obsolecence of the hardware in the systems. If you get 2-3 years you are on serious borrowed time. Even  relatively new systems could go out at any time and leave you in a bind. My wife and I have 1 desktop and 4 laptops in the house. Almost every one has some type of peculiar issue that could possibly lead to disaster at any minute. We are so dependent on these things and in reality they seem to be as fragile as eggshells. 
 
Brian         

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