Another great article completely off the topic of learning iPhone and .NET development but really really important…

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/BACKUPYOURCRAPMissingOperatingSystemBackupsDiskImagesHomeServersBootRecBootMgrRebuildBCDFixBootAndProblemsPlural.aspx

here are the big take homers:

“Conclusion

Have a backup strategy my friends. Not only that, but seriously, test your restores. Backups are great. I do them all the time. Backups always work. Restores fail all the time.

Backup some stuff to the cloud. I don’t care whose cloud, pick one. I used to use Mozy, now I use KeepVault because it backs up my Windows Home Server to the cloud, as well as my desktops.

Make local disk images to external hard drives. I have a 2TB external drive that I make weekly images to use Acronis TrueImage. Just in case everything goes bad.

If you are a presenter and traveler type like me, always be ready with a Virtual Machine on a USB Key or a Disk Image on a hard drive in case things go bad the night before a presentation.

You can make VHD (Virtual Hard Drive) images from physical disks for free with Disk2VHD if you’re really fancy and advanced … Friends. Stop. Go backup your machines. Then backup your spouse’s, girlfriend’s, boyfriend’s, parents, grandparents and Uncle Ronnie’s.”

From the Scott Hanselman’s blog

Happy backing up
Dom