Most home users are reactive rather than proactive when it comes to protecting data and planning for disasters. As a result, personal items such as photos and music are often lost when a hard drive crashes or when a personal computer is stolen. This article provides advice on how home users can protect their drives for relatively little money. The article also provides tips for creating a personal disaster plan that will assist in times of crisis. It gives you items to think about that are often taken for granted, such as needing to access to email, voicemail and other important contact information.