Computer woes

Well...........just when I thought I had things under control and began to get on a roll.  WHAM!    The hard drive in my computer failed. If it isn't possible to recover files, I stand to loose about 4 years of work and pics I had on it. I know it's not the end of the world , but WOW what a pain. Life goes on................ I guess it's time to start backing up everything. Anyone else experienced this?