Do you have to lose everything before you make backups?

Another friend's laptop failed this week. Dead. Gone. Maybe she'll get her data back. Maybe she won't.

Have I mentioned that data recovery usually costs $1000-$2000 or more? And that's only if it works, which it often doesn't.

Lucky for her I'd badgered her into getting a free Dropbox. But in a spectacularly stupid backup failure, she did not put her documents into the Dropbox. She was literally one drag and drop away from being protected three days before her computer just up and died without warning.

Why didn't she put her documents into the Dropbox? "I was gonna do it on the weekend."

Then she said to me, "I was afraid to tell you I hadn't made backups because I knew you'd be mad at me."

No. No. No. No. NO! NO! NO! NO!

The reason to make backups is not to avoid my ire. The reason to make backups is because your don't want to lose all your stuff.

I find it utterly pathetic that I care more about the data on my friends', family's and clients' computers than you all seem to.

It all boils down to this ... are you one of those people who has to lose absolutely everything before you learn your lesson and start making backups? If so, please continue to ignore me. If you would like to be spared that pain, get a Dropbox.