Wow, it’s been a while since I wrote a blog entry here on #WhyPhotograph.org.
I was reading a LinkedIn discussion about backing up systems when, of course, the horror stories appeared. The horror of house fire and how the Fire Department sent so much water into the house to stop the fire that there was more water damage than fire damage and how that will overwhelm “Water Resistant” housing and even compromise “Water Proof” ones. The tornadoes that just delete everything by removing it and depositing the machines, backup drives, etc in someone elses home at full storm velocity.
Lots of good off site  solutions were given but I wanted to add a warning about an interesting way to destroy your computer system and anything connected to it.
A short thought on your computer & your files safety:
Something I haven’t seen mentioned much in any of this is the importance of having EVERYTHING that is connected to your computer on a surge protector. I was developing on-site for a company and had set their system up completely on good surge protectors, etc. Several months after I had finished I got a call that their machine was dead. I went in and found someone had moved the console (ok…I’m old) to another area and plugged it in to the wall. I opened up the box and it was real evident where the surge came in.The video card was literally fried & you could follow the surge into the rest of the machine.
I expect a hurriedly connected (& forgotten) USB, FireWire device, or monitor will cause the same thing.