I have learned something very important

I posted a previous thread: http://forums.gaywidewebmasters.com/...ad.php?t=34258

Over the coarse of 2 months, we have lost 3 external usb hard drives:
1TB Verbatim
500GB Maxtor
750GB Maxtor

We've always relied on hard drives.
On one, there were 2257's
On another, it had all of the bought content we have bought over the years.
On another, it had AVI's of all our masters

Hard drives do not last forever as I've learned. When they fail, sometimes they can be restored, sometimes they just can't. We've lost years of supplies.

Luckily, everything has been backed up in one form or another:
Bought content - Saved on the server
2257's - Printed off / originals kept in file cabinets (of course we're fully compliant)
Master AVI's - We have them on dvds for retail and the master tapes from filming.

We have lost not just hours but months worth of time. Everything has to be downloaded, imported, or rescanned.

This isn't a sympathy thread. I'm not the one that has to do all the work lol. But with my experiences.... I cannot stress to anyone enough to back up your files. Back them up on discs, a 2nd hard drive, anything. This is the most utterly frusterating thing you can ever go through.

The other day, I was going through YouTube just relaxing. I came across Chi Chi LaRue's "Safe Sex is Hot Sex" ads. She screams out "Wrap it up!" multiple times throughout the video. All that's going through my head is "Back it Up!" lol. To make light of it, I recorded the wrap it up part of the youtube video, and played around with it. I've changed the first word to "Back" so around the office.... Whenever everyone's looking for something from what we've lost.... I go to my computer, turn up the volume all the way, and play it. Everyone chuckles. All kidding aside, it is the most entire frusterating thing you ever have to do.

Just throwing my most frustrating experience out there. If you have to do this, I strongly feel your pain.

FURTHERMORE....
The 3 hard drives that I mentioned that have crapped out.... Well we have another 10 or so Western Digital ones: (something like this) http://www.staples.com/Western-Digit...?cmArea=SEARCH

They have lasted strongly for maybe 4 years now. Never a problem. Always a charm, used daily! All the time.
Again, just throwing that out there.

yup, we have an external disk failure every 3 or 4 months now, its crazy. We have learned to keep dual disks, using one for strictly 1-time backups and the other for daily work. That usually helps but we have still been caught out and have lost a few days work here and there.