How My Laptop Died and The Grieving Process

i can relate! this happened to me 2 months ago and i've been using my laptop for 2 years. i was close to tears when i thought I lost all my files. luckily they were able to retrieve my files. and once it was fixed, the first thing i bought was a stack of blank CDs and an external back-up drive that's 80% private (password required) and 20% public. AND...i wrote all the impt. dates on a personal notebook. =D