Why this kind of message doesn't worry me

OH NOZE! I booted up my Windows XP Tablet Edition laptop this morning to see the following HORRIBLE SCARY sequence of messages:

So am I going to LOSE ALL MY DATA and ALL OF MY PROGRAMS?

Nope. Here's why.

• I keep all of my data under source control. I mean everything. My Christmas shopping list. My business stuff. The photo of my niece at her 8th birthday party. Everything.
• I install programs from a network share, never from CDs. When I get a new program on CD I copy the install files to a network share before I run them. The network share is backed up.
• I keep a log of every program I install. If my hard drive fails (or other disaster strikes) and I need to reinstall all of my programs, I just repeat the steps that I've put in that log. The log is, of course, under source control.

Yeah, I'll look into this failing hard drive. I'll use SpinRite on it and patch it up. But even if I let the drive fail, having followed the aforementioned good habits I'm going to be just fine.

If you're one of the people who would freak out by seeing the above messages, take that as a sign that you're doing it wrong. Stop treating your computer as if it's never going to fail and stop treating your data as if it will always be on your hard drive.