The two key words to avoiding IT disasters:- Backups and Planning I offer a service to assess your exposure to the risk of IT disaster, advise how to improve the situation and help with preparation for what we hope will never happen.  Computer Data Recovery Below are some of the  considerations that need to be  addressed. The comments here  are aimed at businesses and the  self-employed but could apply  equally to any home user who  uses a computer seriously for  photography, art, writing, music or  many other hobbies.   Anyone who relies on their  computer and especially on the  information stored inside should  ask themselves how big a  problem they would face if the  computer and/or data were totally  lost.  For business users the loss  could easily affect all aspects of  their daily work and ability to  operate; whilst accounts and such  might be recreated from other  sources, the main loss will be in  the working time taken to  reassemble and recreate all the  files, documents and resources  built up in the past trading history.   For home users the loss might be  upsetting and for example stored  digital photos might be impossible  to replace. The bigger the imagined problem,  the more important it is to plan for  the worst and take steps to reduce the risk and the impact of the  disaster. Backups are the first line of  defence and most people  understand the concept but it is  human nature to assume all will  be well and to put off or forget to  do backups. If you don't have backups, you  need to do it NOW and I can help  with advice.  I can  supply  expertise, supplies etc to get you  started.  For businesses backups are  ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL and  there is no excuse for not having  them. You'll only have yourself to  blame if disaster strikes, going  without backups is like sky-diving  without a parachute! OK so now you have backups of  your important data, that's great  but it isn't the whole story.   Backups partly protect you from  the sort of disasters that affect the  PC's proper operation e.g.  windows crashes, viruses, failed   hardware etc (although you'll need more than a backup to recover  from these). Unfortunately simple backups do  not necessarily protect against  external disasters:- Theft – burglars will take the PC,  external backup devices, memory  sticks, sometimes even the CDs  and DVDs so if your backups are  in any of the usual places, they  could be lost along with the PC  and data.  Software and licences  are also a target for thieves and  are difficult and costly to replace. Fire & Flood – similar to theft in  that all external backups are lost  as well as the PC, software and  data. The problems recovering from  these big external risks can all be  reduced by maintaining an up-to-  date off-site backup by either  using an internet-based backup  service or keeping a backup (on  DVD or an external drive) at  different premises such as a  relative's house  (security and  data protection legislation might  become an issue here).