So it's high time I mentioned it again: Back up, back up, back up! Here's a handy article from WorldStart Computer Tips about how to do that:

Just about everybody has important data on their hard drive, from digital pictures to important documents, emails, earmarked websites the list goes on and on. In my experience people are pretty lax about backing up their PCs, and I think this really is an area that deserves attention. With a good back up set you can bounce back from a fatal hard drive crash and be up and running with all the your pictures, documents, downloads, email and favorites before you know it. Having important files stored on removable media is also a good safety precaution in case you get a virus or trojan horse.

There are a couple of different ways to back up important data, from the casual copy and paste to running complicated scheduled backups. There is no wrong way, as long you have a copy of everything you need.

You can save the data on a couple of different types of media (floppy, ZIP, CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, Flash memory, even dat drives) but for home use I really recommend...

You can't afford not to keep reading. Think this is kid stuff, RAMypants? Then why haven't you backed up this week? If you love The New Yorker, emdashes, words, sounds, pictures, ideas, and/or yourself, do it now.