I have recently noticed an alarming trend all over my service providers.....they are erasing all data before 2020.....
My bank erased all transaction history before 2021, LinkedIn is releasing communication before 2020, I keep seeing notices from old accounts about no longer supporting their previous vows to offer lifetime storage.....emails are getting 'cleaned up', lots of things require MFA and2FA or the account gets closed....
They want all 'pre-pandemic' data removed....we are in the cleanup phase....it's not looking good. Buy the books and archive physical and digital!!
tldr: stock up physical libraries if you prepping. Books and information about the past....we cannot afford another Alexandria
If you're doing perfectly legal digital backups of books you own make sure to have multiple backups on and off site.
What I usually do is buy a new external hard drive every couple of years (especially when it's full), copy everything over to the new one, and then keep adding to the new one.
A spare hard drive filled with stuff you want to keep and completely unplugged from your system is a good idea in general, especially if you have a computer that never gets on the internet (single board computers and old laptops are great for this).
Don't forget to also put some drives in an EMP-protected container (metal safe, etc.)