Hmm despite all the attempts within the apps to do something about it, it sounds like they are all failing to address this problem adequately. I'm not sure what the answer is tho. Do you buy an extra bit of software or learn to save more often - I don't know. What I can say is that from having those sorts of experiences with such soul crushing effect then spending a few quid on an external USB hard drive must surely be less painful than this. A bunch of flash drives in the fire safe is a good idea as well. Not all that dissimilar actually. Offline USB storage whether on a disk or flash is worth the funding. Its no effort to do it, just the cash to do it. If you live in a zone where the power is icky then I would also suggest an uninterrupted power supply. These are expensive off the shelf except that if your in a country like the UK where your going through this green energy thing and nobody is allowed to recycle commercial stuff then they can be had for nothing as a lot of industrial companies are getting rid of them because of the expense of disposing of the dead batteries. I have a collection of about 5 now all for no cash but you have to buy the quite pricy lead acid battery to go in them. But for the cost of the battery alone they are worth having. Its saved my PC from two hard power cuts and numerous brown outs any of which could have been fatal to my system.

I have mentioned this gadget several times on here but ill say it again to attempt to prevent some of this pain going around... you can get a USB HDD docking station. Fit old HDDs into the slot and it gives them USB access. So you only need to buy extra HDDs and not the USB versions of them. For one its not much in it, but if you have a rotation of them like Diamond has with his drives then you can buy a small blank internal HDD for low cost and make it a USB type.

http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Bl.../dp/B001A4HAFS

BTW you dont need a 2TB drive to go with it. Something like a 300Gb would be ample.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00461E7JE

I know its $70 but its your work, sweat and tears. The computer you can replace, the work you cant. If your machine has just failed spectacularly but the HDD survived and is a SATA type then you can build / buy a new machine and keep the old HDD as a backup. Then its only $30. By having the HDD powered off of a power brick instead of the PC's PSU then if its the PSU that goes bang (literally in some cases) then it can fry all the electrical stuff in the box. By having the external HDD over USB it might fry the USB port of the PC or even the docking station but its unlikely to fry the HDD as well. Put the powerbrick on the uninterruptible mains as well. Not a lot other than simoltaneously losing both the PC HDD and your backup at the same time will then be a disaster. If like Diamond you rotate them then they all have to fail or the whole house has to burn down. In Diamonds case the fire safe might even prevent that. Extreme, sure, but that is what we do !. Big companies have offsite backups to prevent even that.