ditto. I finally got around to upgrading my computer to be handle all this stuff on high graphics settings. Works great now. The new board also came with a couple of USB3 ports so I added an external drive with auto backup. There is enough space on it to manually back up a copy of things that I want to ensure keeping.
My computer also has two hard drives, so while drive C runs everything - all the documents, including My Documents, are on the E drive. This has saved all my files from all sorts of upgrades and rebuilds. A fault such as a renamed profile does not touch the E drive. I've reloaded XP a couple of times and loaded W7 twice without losing anything except what was on the C drive.
Back up. Back up. Back up. It is not a question of IF a computer will crash. It is a matter of WHEN a computer will crash and whether you've saved everything in a safe location.
Jonathan, sorry to hear that.