After many years of knowing I need to be backing up my files I have taken action to do so.
I bought a WD external 1TB hard drive with auto back up software with it. Backed everything up and forget about it. For a few days.
Lots of things not right. FAQ and help topics indicate catastrophic failure. A phone call to the warranty line. A few quick questions has the unit condemned and a replacement on its way.
All sorted now. In the process of initial backups once more. Weird how the only hard drive failure I’ve had has been on an external drive that was obtained to counter such events.