I've used Dropbox. It works nicely to store data for my thesis. Plus, it makes sharing data with my adviser pretty darn easy. So sorry about your luck, OP.

Why did this get downvoted? It's really good advice. Having something that important should have many backups.

I don't disagree with 13's advice, I think it's the smart thing to do, but I also think some people don't have (or have money for) a backup computer or backup hard drive or even to pay monthly for more iCloud storage. I also think a lot of people lack the computer skills to know how to do some of that which may be why 13's comment got down voted. Also maybe because it sounded like he wasn't being sympathetic and sounded like op deserved it. Just a guess.

#111, services like google drive (not sure about icloud) give quite a bit of space for free, I forgot what the limit was exactly (mine is limitless because of my university), but it should be enough to at the very least store the most important data on for free.

USB attached to your keys just in case of a worst case scenario such as this? I literally picked up an 8gig one today for $4 AUD

I made this beautiful collage in kindergarten, but no one wanted to pay for it.

Well maybe if you had sued someone 75, then it may have been paid for. Your fault for not trying. ;)

Same happened to me.. Maybe OP's ex gf has a good reason though. OP could've cheated on her multiple times or something. We don't really know the whole story here.. That, or she's just a psycho

A reason to dump the OP, maybe. Not a reason to commit criminal destruction of property in addition. Her decision to be so childish when she was told no undermines the legitimacy of her reaction pretty severely. If the OP were a terrible guy, and she's not just a controlling psychopath, why not just let the guy go?

I do agree with you 19, that in alot of cases a best friend of the opposite sex can go bad. Whether it's because of (we'll use a guy with a best girl friend) the guy valuing his best friend above the girlfriend, or the best friend trying to break up the relationship, or there being unaddressed feelings between the best friend and boyfriend that weren't brought up until someone else came into the picture. Not all cases, but there are a lot of cases that can get messy in my opinion.

#113 I was the female best friend in a similar situation. We had been friends for over ten years, both of us had relationships going without a hitch until my best friend got a really jealous girlfriend who demanded he stop talking with me. He even tried to show her I was harmless by introducing us, but the effect only held for a few weeks. Then he gave in to her demands and stopped talking with me. Years later she moved out of their appartment while he was at work, leaving a note that said she's moving in with her new boyfriend. Sadly, our friendship never recovered from that break.

unfortunately, OP didnt dodge the bullet at all. He got capped by crazy ex

Restore points only protect the system, may or may not protect user files. OP can get free file recovery software, though sometime free versions are limited. But even having to pay say $40 would be worth it.