ckquote>The most valuable part of a computer is also its most fragile: Data are the wealth of a digital lifestyle, a currency of which many notes are irreplaceable. At least, that’s how I felt staring at a “Confirm you want to wipe your hard disk” message, my finger poised over the mouse.

During an emergency is a bad time to plan for one. It’s the feeling one might get jumping from a plane before checking one’s parachute.

In the Smashing Magazine article, My Hard Drive Crashed…” (And What I Learned From It), Ben Gremillion covers his experiences and thoughts with several backup services.

For what it’s worth, I do backups manually right now. I use Apple’s Time Machine, but I manually back up to external USB hard drives and store them off-site for safe keeping. That being said, I’m considering signing up for CrashPlan. It appears to be the best option, and in asking about different services from people I know, it’s the most flexible.