Image backup
As we expand our image collection, we'll not only need large capacity hard drives, but also backups. It's important to perform backups in case the original drive corrupts, or suffers a mechanical failure. Nothing is forever and even though the drive might be a premium brand, things can still go wrong, usually when you least expect it.
There's no point in backing up your images, or your Elements catalog for that matter, to the same place where everything else is stored. If it becomes corrupted, everything is lost. For this reason, it's important to consider buying a second, large-capacity hard drive, preferably one with a higher capacity than the initial storage device, which is then used only for backing up your images, music, Elements' catalog, and so on.
If you are using a Mac, this is very easily set up using a pre-installed Apple application called Time Machine. Windows users also have it easy because most of the good quality external drives available...