A Hard Disk Failure

My hard disk failed recently. This is a new computer. I bought a new computer got a new hard disk and fixed the old one but the data is gone unless I shoot for an expensive recovery service ($400+) with a variable success rate. Thankfully, I had a physical (CD) copy of all my pre-MBA stuff. I had to recover a lot of things from b-school friends. Lesson: get another hard drive linked through your USB. Get some kind of archiving service and save, save, save your data. Second Lesson: Web based software looks more and more attractive everyday.