If you don’t already have one, now is as good a time as any to get an external hard-drive to backup with. Lord knows how sad you’ll be if your computer crashes and you lose all your data. Especially now that you’ve read this post; you’ll be extra sad. Like Alanis sang about in that one song.

External hard drives are, in fact, quite cheap. Get a LaCie. I’ve owned a few and they’re bullet proof.

If you’re a smart shopper, get a refurbished LaCie. That’s what I have plugged into my Mac Pro right now. A LaCie d2 Extreme - and they’re not kidding.

I back-up every night. At first I tried Carbon Copy Cloner, which is a free backup software that lots of folks swear by. I had trouble with it so I bought SuperDuper!. Now I sleep well every night, knowing my John Mayer albums are safe and sound.

Postscript: If you don’t want an external drive - and you have a speedy internet connection - you can backup with Mozy. Backup everything for $4.95 a month, or 2GB worth for free.