so backup your machine��� because mine was still working at 8h this morning and 8h40 dropped dead
Really strange to see that people _know_ things can break but they wonder if their own stuff breaks _all of a sudden_. :)
For Mac users there are two really good options. One is using timemachine and the other is using Arq[1] that makes timemachine like backups on amazon S3. Works like a charm from wherever you are.
For both options you need to spend money. But it is nothing compared to the pain of loosing all your data. Really!
If you don't want to spend money or don't have a mac you can still make backups to another computer using rsync. You'll find plenty of articles if you search the net for rsync and backup.
Norbert