sorry to hear of your troubles, but thanks for the highlighting the problem and spelling out so clearly what you have lost and what it clearly means to you and would mean to others if it happened to them. let's hope at least somebody takes the advice and it saves them some hassle.

a question for the IT specialists on this thread that may be able to help: i have 2 separate NAS drives that i mirror occassionally and also a separate USB portable HDD that I mirror (even less occassionally) so have backup options. however, they're basically all at risk from fire or burglary. any suggestions?

is there anywhere online that you can back everything up to? (must take ages for 500GB to upload, and cost a few quid).

i guess a sensible option would be to keep the usb HDD in a fireproof safe, and for the cost of one i was thinking about getting another and keeping it at my brother's house.