For future issues use a backup program to copy the files to a separate hard drive. The programs can also do an image of your whole hard drive so it can restore like Windows System Restore but do a better job of it.
I use EaseUS Todo Backup. It does image and incremental backups and you can specify when to delete the older backup files as they can fill up your separate hard drive quickly. Get a big one : )
http://www.easeus.com
No doubt about that!
I have found that a 1TB drive is too small...