Dying Drives, Data Recovery, and Lessons Learned

For the past year, I've been considering the purchase of a network attached storage device with mirrored RAID drives. The goal of this purchase would be to store all our long-term data (pictures etc.) in a location that's independent of any particular PC/laptop that we're currently using. Mirrored RAID would, I figured, provide some insurance against disk failure. But this would be EXPENSIVE I said, and so I delayed.
Then, last week, our external USB drive died. Whenever it was plugged into the computer, it would cause the whole machine to lock up. All our digital pictures were on that drive, and few of them were backed up anywhere else. What's the dollar value of 5 years of pictures? Hazel's birth, trips to Zambia and China, camping trips and vacations - all gone. Most professional data recovery companies want $200 just to get started, and if things get complicated - the cost can approach $2000. I didn't have $2k to spend, but it was sure going to be hard to say goodbye to all those memories.
Fortunately, with the help of a coworker, some magic was worked. The pics were all recovered, along with most of my other files. Now, I'm happy to spend $250 for that NAS device. Additionally, we're signing up for Mozy. Mozy backs up your files online - so they're safe even if your house is leveled by a tornado. The service is ~$4 per month. Now we can archive even more digital memories, and I can rest easy knowing they're safe.