One thing that many of us forget to do is treat any arranger or WS that basically is a computer EXACTLY like you would treat a computer...

In other words, use a UPS, if not on the gig, at least 100% of the time at home. Power fluctuations, spikes, RF noise on the AC line, a whole host of ground issues, all of these can make data transfer occasionally problematic. A UPS can make all the difference here, and give you peace of mind when needing to do work during thunderstorms, or other dodgy weather.

The other thing is to be as anal about backing up your arranger's HD at least as often as you would back up any mission critical stuff (financial records, work projects, your mp3 collection ) in your computer.

The more arrangers move towards being little more than computers with keyboards attached, the more they suffer from exactly the same problems that plague computers. The fix for them is regular, scheduled backup, and additional backup after any intensive editing or creative session...

Personally, given the generally non-technical nature of much of the arranger market, I think it is time for redundant backup HD's in arrangers. They cost little, and an automatic 'mirror' utility would be easy to implement. Then, if a HD fries, you switch to the backup HD (which is automatically a clone of the main) and keep on keeping on! If they want to make us accept using barely disguised computers to make music, they ought to at least acknowledge how non-computer savvy most of their customers are, and provide an easy way (like Apple's Time Machine) for the non-technical player to remain adequately backed up AT ALL TIMES...