---

Just had a 250GB hard disk full of photos crash with the loss of a significant number of the images. I think I have most of it backed up in various scattered places but will take weeks to sort things out. The disk was showing errors some weeks ago so I should have replaced it then before it finally died but the operating system thought it could keep repairing the errors till now.
Also have had two 1TB hard disks fail in the past but 'fortunately' they failed within the first week or two so I had kept a full backup based on one of the rules of computing that if something is going to fail it will fail almost immediately (or when there is some vital urgent report to write).

I know this has nothing to do with Diptera but it seems everyone is producing loads of digital images and will have to store them somewhere. A friend used CD's then DVD's and has filled a room completely with them, whereas I went the opposite route and chose hard disks instead as I have a tiny flat and no space for storage. CD's/DVD's deteriorate over time and can loose all the data within a few years, hard disks are supposed to be much more reliable unless they get a virus or similar but actually they can suffer problems too as I have shown.

Anyway I am sure everyone will say their Diptera files are fully backed up with copies in flame proof vaults in several geographical locations. As to the real specimens though thats another matter.