That's the question I ask myself whenever I sit down at my computer. It's what keeps me sitting at my computer even when I'm exhausted. A few minutes is all it takes to back something up again.
I once had my computer stolen a week before my manuscript was due in New York. Because I'd backed it up to my IPod, I was saved. All the other saved versions – CD and flash drive – had been stolen as well.
Now? I'm slightly paranoid, but my life is on my computers.
I back my desktop with Carbonite.
I back up my desktop to a separate hard drive.
I back up my home network to Carbonite as well.
I back up non-personal files on my network on Dropbox.
Once a week, I back up my Dropbox folder to a flash drive.
I archive my flash drives once a month and begin using a new one. I put the flash drives into my offsite security.
If you keep anything on your computer, I urge you to be redundant in your backups. Malware can destroy a backup file or mechanical problems can mess up a flash drive. A cloud service (like Dropbox) can have a security issue or Denial of Service attack.
You probably don't have to be as paranoid as I am, but I'd never count on one kind of backup as being good enough.
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I'm sorry you lost your computer. I've often thought of a kindle for books, but I have a great fear that I will lose it or drop and break it and all my books will be lost. I do need to think more on backing up my computer as I am now starting to write not only short stories and poetry, but a novel.
