Your biggest mistake was not taking backups to a separate disk and, preferably, to the web.LovingLife139 wrote:If it helps anyone else in the future, learn from my mistakes
Install Google Backup and SYnc or Dropbox and invest a few pounds in a USB stick. Take daily backups of important files. As a last resort, email yourself a file - if you configure your email to keep files on the server it will act as a backup. Switch on AOO's Always create backup copy and AutoRecovery - see Tutorial.