The first thing a new or experienced computer user should learn is the importance of backing up. Are you still not backing up your data? You should know this by now: computers can and do fail. The problem is that you usually get no warning before it's too late. This has happened to many people. In extreme cases, it has put companies out of business. Computers are becoming more and more reliable. This creates a false sense of security - we begin to think all our data are safe and secure and will never go away. It's not true - and never will be. If you don't back up your computer system regularly. Backups are really a necessity, and you are responsible for making backups of your files.