Hi Shadowfax -
I have a healthy portion of computer insecurity too, I asked around a lot, and got the following advice, which I took, and now I sleep much better.
1) Daily back up: SyncBack Free . This is super easy to use … at the end of every day I hit “Backup only the new things on my computer”, I have it routed to one of those portable hard drives, which I have connected via USB to my computer. I can choose whether I want the whole c: drive backed up, or just “All Cubase Files”, or just the project that I am working on that day. Very flexible.
The really nice thing is that it brings the actual files over … cpr files, .doc files, whatever … it doesn’t put them in some obscure/opaque proprietary format first. I used to have a backup system that did that, and I was always uneasy as to whether things were getting backed up accurately. With SyncBack Free, I went and tested whether I could open those backed up files on the portable drive from my computer - and it worked perfectly.
I keep the portable hard drive unplugged from the main computer at all times except when actually backing up, and I sleep easy knowing if my main computer dies, all my work is saved on that portable drive.
2) Cloning backup of computer SSD (has my C and D drives): I bought an identical SSD to the one in my computer (actually I think it was a little bigger, but definitely NOT smaller!) … and using Paragon Free backup made a bit-for-bit clone of the SSD in my computer. So if the worst happens, I pop out the SSD from my computer, pop the other one in, and I’m in business. It will be lacking whatever programs I downloaded since the last clone, but at least I can work right away!
I’m about to upgrade to either 7.5.40, or 8.0.10, and before I do, I’m going to clone my SSD as it is currently configured.
After doing all this, my anxiety about losing my work is much less. Truly, I should do more, such as keep one or two of each type of backup off-site, in case the house blows up or something, and maybe one day I will, but I feel so much better than having it only in some proprietary format that I’d never tested to see if it worked right.
Hope this perspective isn’t too unhelpful, if you have any questions, please post back!