Ah, a question as old as computers themselves! 
Since the dawn of modern machines there has been one constant among users, and that is most of them never bother to back up their data. This is one thing I’ve never truly understood.
You lock your house when you leave, make extra copies of important documents and store the originals in a safe place, and make sure you have an extra pair of underwear when you go on a trip in case you… Well, you know what I mean.
But why is it so many people never bother to backup critical data? I’m not saying that none of you backup your data, but you’d be surprised how many people have only a single copy of everything they consider irreplaceable. There are some that are an exception to this rule and those are usually the individuals who’ve lost everything before.
The surprising thing is there are lots of businesses out there who seem to take the same stance.
Why?
The amazing thing is when the inevitable does happen, a hard drive crash, computer failure, fire, theft, power surge, any one of a number of things really, all of a sudden, these businesses and individuals can’t spend enough money to get their data back. 
I’m not saying everyone has to run out, spend all sorts of money on multiple layers of backups, replication of data, hot spares of machines, replacement hardware to sit on a shelf in case you need it and more… I’m talking about inexpensive, automatic and “set it and forget it” type backups that are available almost no matter what happens!
(Yea, that just dated me…)
For most individuals, the quickest, most cost effective and easiest type of backup they can setup is a cloud based service. For $5 to $10 a month, you can get more capacity to back your data up automatically and securely and never have to worry about it again! 
(Example pricing for iDrive)
That sure beat’s a $2,500 bill to send your computer off for data recovery IF the data is even recoverable. With a cloud based backup service like Carbonite, iDrive, Acronis and others, you download a small program and install it on your machine to backup your data. This service makes an initial copy of everything you need to keep and make sure you have in the event of a disaster, and then copy any changes or new data going forward! How much daily effort is this to maintain? Well, most services by default send you an email if there’s a problem or you can opt in to get notified good or bad.
We’re talking serious peace of mind here folks! 
Laptop get’s stolen? You have your data.
House burns down? You have your data.
Aliens come down, kidnap you and all you have?
At least your relatives will be able to find that secret meatloaf recipe!
Cloud backups give you the peace of mind that no matter what happens to your equipment you’ll always be able to get your data back!
But, I hear you ask, why don’t I just copy my data to a thumb drive, or external hard drive and not have to keep paying someone to store my data?
Well, you can certainly do that, but let me ask you this?
Have you ever mis-placed your keys?
Had something fall out of your pocket?
(I know I’m going to date myself here) Have someone overwrite a tape of something you recorded “accidentally”?
All of these things can happen, and more, that can put that data at risk, not to mention most people will make an extra copy on a device and then either keep that devices plugged into the computer (bad idea, I’ll explain shortly) or leave it sitting on the desk, or at the very least in the same home as the machine. I have one word for why that is a bad idea…
Fire
Or other things, but that get’s the point across. If your home and computer is gone, your backups are going to be gone right along with it! If you have it all in the cloud, that can’t happen!
Why is it a bad idea to keep your backup device connected to your machine all the time? I can hear you say “Hey, I have it just write my backups to that removable disk all the time so I’m safe!”…
What’s the biggest reason this is a bad idea? It’s called Malware! You know, virus’s, crypto attacks, those sorts of things? One of the first things those attacks look for is the ability to undo the damage they’re about to wrought on you! They’ll disable shadow copies, snapshots, windows backup jobs, disable your existing security software (or try to at least), then they’ll try to nuke everything, or encrypt it with better than military grade encryption. If your backup drive is connected when that happens, it’ll merrily encrypt those as well. 
So, do yourself a favor, make sure your backup devices are offline and unplugged when you’re done backing your data up! They can’t be attacked if they’re not powered on and/or connected to the machine! And get a cloud backup service while you’re at it!
Backup your data!
Follow my 3-2-1 backup methodology:
3 copies of your important data
2 copies stored in different geographical places
1 copy stored in the cloud
If you do this, you’ll never loose any of your data ever again!