I too lost a hard drive but being over cautious I have always made my back ups on 2 disks or now CD RWs, alternating them for each session. Also make GEDCOMS every couple of months and give them out to a sister and daughter for storage. Guess I always expected to be the only one in the world using a particular genealogy program. Do them on CD-RWs and exchange them. Expect my car to break down all the time also but won't go into what I carry in the trunk.... My family does sometimes raise their eybrows. But works for me. I did lose e mail addresses though and now print these out periodically.