My computer died a last summer. No big deal, I am a religious backer upper. (Very technical term there.)
Unfortunately, I had a lot going on, my youngest going off to college, extra bills from that, so didn't buy another for a while. In the mean time, I was using my laptop and that backup harddrive of my photos and digital stuff.
Fast forward to a week ago. I get my new desktop. Plug in the backup harddrive and POP, FIZZ, SMOKE. About 500g of scrapbooking and photos is no longer accessible to me. I will probably be able to take the plate out of it and have it transferred to another and salvage the information. But it will probably cost about $350.
Instead of just buying another backup harddrive (For MAX $100), I waited around and tried to save a buck and now I am VERY SORRY. 
Just a friendly reminder to backup your backup!
Oh no! So sorry this happened Marti!
I usually backup to an external drive and to cloud storage, although our internet connection is so slow here in CA that I haven't really been able to do the cloud storage. So I'm living a bit dangerously myself.
Oh wow, sorry to hear that happened! I had that two year ago and it's not fun.
I do hope you're able to get all those files restored. 
Marti, that is terrible. It is the fear of that happening to me that has made me basically a psycho about backups.
Cloud backups are where it's at, IMO. You don't have to plug anything in, don't have to think about anything, it runs full-time in case you're a spaz and forget, and the backup is physically located off-site in case there is some kind of disaster or burglary at your home.
If you have the bandwidth/budget for it, I highly recommend cloud backups. Just make sure to do your research so you're getting one that suits your needs!
am so sorry this happened to you marti.... hubby is computer nuts so we do have backups of backups of backups.... trouble is with my scrap goodies, I buy things almost weekly (yeah I know I am a collector) and I forget to do a monthly back up and hubby's always telling me off....
shame you don't live here... hubby would have tried to retrieve your files... he has done that for a couple of businesses around here... they are dreadful for forgetting to back up
Ouch! I usually have all of my stuff on my computer hard drive (hubby bought me one with LOTS of memory), and I back up my zips and photos to 2 external hard drives.