I seem to remember a recent thread about someone losing their work because their hard drive died.

I think a number of options were discussed about backing it up electronically and keeping a hard copy.

Looking on Amazon I hadn't realised how cheap or big (in terms of capacity) USB sticks had become lately.

You can get a 4gb pen for less than £20, 8gb for around £40 and or if you really want, 16gb for around £120. I've just bought two 4gb sticks so I can keep portable backups easily. One to take everywhere and one to stay at home.

Every time I look they're cheaper, but that's amazing!

But they still don't protect you from the house going up in flames, so I also back up by emailing files to myself on my googlemail account.

Emma

True that's why I always carry a copy on my person. I figure if I'm in the house when it goes up in flames then it won't matter either way. But, I had this conversation the other day. That would be the only thing that I'd take with me if the house was on fire.

The cost is ridiculous at the beginning of 2006 we bought so 2gb sticks for work which cost just under £100. In the next couple of years they'll be so large and so cheap that they'll probably replace hard drives, particularly in laptops.

The free Yahoo briefcase is a brilliant way of backing up and, like googlemail, it means that if your house and therefore memory sticks went up in smoke along with your computer, you'd still be able to access your work from another machine.

I keep some stuff on WW, marked for my eyes only.