>>Bleh. The aphorism about the shoemaker's kids comes to mind.
>>
>>Have you vowed to never let this happen again?
>
>I did and it worked. I had a HD crash some years ago. Lost about 30% of data. Vowed to improve my backup system.
>
>Had my second HD crash 5 months ago. Went to Best Buy and got a replacement drive and installed it, all in less than an hour. Took a while the same day to format and install OS and major apps and data. I'd say I recovered 99% from backups. No problem other than the hassle.
>
>My system? CD's for permament external storage (photos, mp3, permanent data). A second hard drive on the same box with everything the main one has. I use Beyond Compare to synchronize them a couple of times a day. VSS for source code and also have all financial files (encrypted) copied to another box in my home LAN plus a ZIP drive (remember those?) to take out of the system. It works for me.

Yes, I remember Zip drives. What do you bid for a dozen or so unformatted, shrink wrapped Zip discs? ;-)

There is no perfect backup strategy. Mine is as close as I can figure out how to make it. I have four computers (two of them usually offline) linked together, and Backup4All backs up changed or new files on a nightly schedule. I have tested the restore operation and it works like a champ. Apart from the possibility of the external backup drive taking it in the shorts, I am covering all bases. And still nervous.