Yes. Backups. We've all heard the sermon before. I should have backed up more often. Backups are a chore, and one that's easily put off until later. Or later. Or maybe next week. And, of course, it's only things that I've been working on and I can recreate that readily enough, can't I?

Quite often, it's not until you have a glitch that eats files or a hard drive crash that you appreciate the true value of a backup. And now that almost everyone has a CD burner, backups aren't really expensive. The expensive part in the equation is time, and the little time it takes weekly to burn off a CD is really quite miniscule compared to the time it'll take to repair or recreate everything. Even some things you might not consider. How long did it take to get that MP3 collection near complete? What about your emails, especially if you have registrations codes there? Your internet bookmarks?

Today, the system gets a wipe and all things reinstalled, and what I have left will be put back where it was. So all I've really lost is a handfull of notes, a couple of lists of books that I was looking for, a voicemail and about a day of reinstallations.

Save your data. Even a well behaved computer can become truculent and spiteful.