In the old days it was just the same if say you had a fire or burst water tank or your records/cds knicked, in fact in may ways it was worse (no back up available) As it happens, me, orobably the most technically illiterate person on this forum - do back up my desktop's hard drive monthly on a seperate hard disk. And load a selection of my digital photos onto Facebook 'just in case' and have all my CDs upstairs and only download a bit of music any case. er...I'm with Ted on the spreadsheets Sean...but maybe when I get my betfair trading bot built I'll feel differently