Alan1729 Loc: England UK, now New York State.

Sorry to hear of your loss, I've lost things in two break-ins not so much. I hope you had your equipment insured at lease you can rebuild with the latest.

I keep all my an my families files backed up on a nas and I dump that often to a number of pocket drives and keep a copy in the car and another place away from the house. I have too much to push into the cloud. You can get a 2Tb pocket drive for around $100 quite cheap really.

An alarm is a good idea too. I know it's not the equipment its the pictures.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

I worry about something like that happening. My latest desktop has a BluRay burner in it. These are only about $80, and a BluRay disc holds 25GB of data. I back up my computer regularly and take BluRay discs to keep at work, just to have my photos at a second location. A safe deposit box would also work - this protects against fires as well. Not to mention having backups of all my income tax and other financial files. So sorry for your loss - hopefully the police will find the bastards who did this, and find your computer - meanwhile, you should be visiting nearby pawn shops and checking Craigslist. Even if they erase the hard drive to sell the computer there may be a lot of recoverable photos if you can get the computer back.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Home security ideas: Especially if you live in the city a monitored alarm is a good idea. Or you can get a wireless alarm with window and door sensors and a loud local alarm for about $400 with no monthly monitoring. I also have a $60 motion-sensor video camera that sends a photo to my work email whenever there is movement near my computer. I also have $10 window-breakage alarms on sensitive windows, and to prevent home invasion when I am home I have the "Door Club" device - only about $25 - installed on my two doors. That and my dog help me sleep very secure at night! (Even if someone could get past the Door Club, it would give me plenty of time to get out the shotgun!) Also - in an upstairs room in the evening - whether someone is home or not - there is always a "Fake TV" running (check it out on Amazon) from dusk until midnight.

Photobud Loc: Palmetto, Florida

In addition to my external backup drives I also use Carbonite.
It saved all my files about a year ago as I lost everything. Off site backup is a real necessity

Pkfish Loc: Wilson Wy

Sorry for your loss! Wow . I've got 3 huge dogs that watch over the place, but they aren't always home. I like jeep daddy's thought about the fire proof gun safe ( got one of those) can't imagine the feeling of loss and violation.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

I use a virus program from:
www.webroot.com
It includes 25GB of free online storage for photos, etc. Well, free in the sense that after you buy their product there is no additional cost per year. That's a fair amount of storage plus their program is excellent, IMHO.
I hope the police end up finding your hard drives and gear.

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

The average house fire is completely extinguished within 30 minutes. And to get reasonable fire insurance, there must be a fire station within a relatively short distance. In my area, the goal is for the first fire engine to arrive within 3 minutes of notification.
So, a 60 minute rated safe would be fine for the vast majority of people.

Alan1729 Loc: England UK, now New York State.

Where I live there was a structure fire in a next door barn fire crews from 8, 9 and 12 mile away towns arrived before the local crew one mile away. Oh and they also arrived after the refreshment truck, don't think they did anything except drink and eat. Hope you are all better situated. Thankfully the nearby towns are so good.

Kentee Loc: Southern California

An alarm system provides no insurance recovery if there is a loss but, if you do get insurance, there will be a discount because you have the alarm system.

Correct that without a fire hydrant, etc., no insurance company will cover the property. I live in the city so I do have insurance coverage but I have never had a loss claim to submit. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

There is currently a multiple defendant class action suit pending against a large of list of insurance companies to confront this very problem. Of course, this suit started in California, but has now expanded to several states. The suit was initiated because a chap in the hills above Beverly Hills had a home 2500 feet from the nearest hydrant and was refused home-owner's insurance because of the lack of water to fight a fire within 1/4 mile of his house. The insurance company failed to note the Olympic size swimming pool in his back yard. One farmer farther north joined the suit because there are no hydrants within several miles, the Sacramento River is less than 100 yards away. There are just two examples of how insurance companies have their sands. Oh, the farmer near the Sacramento River; the same insurance company had no problem approving the flood insurance it had sold him the year before!