I survived more than 3 hard-drive failures/system failures over the years without losing my data. My system setup helped in the survival so this might help. I h

I survived more than 3 hard-drive failures/system failures over the years without losing my data. My system setup helped in the survival so this might help. I had desktops and laptops that died, crashed or otherwise became unusable. The data survived. Here is what I do: I have three categories of files: (1) small, very important files (source codes, scripts, articles, notes, documents) (2) large but important files (photos & videos, Virtual Machine images ) (3) unimportant files (downloads, temporary files, screen captures) 3 main folders are setup for each category. Category 1 is backed up to (1) a cloud based continuous back up service (crashplan) (2) gitlab as part of version control (3) local external HDDs daily Category 2 is backed up to (1) crashplan and (2) local external HDDs Category 3 is never backed up. Having a copy in local external HDDs helps in quick recovery. Organising the hard drive keeping a unexpected crash in mind helps in quick recoveries.