safe storage for my files

My goal for the month is to resurrect my old desk top. As many of you may not know, I have had that thing for close to 5 years already and because of over usage, it has finally given up on me. With its demise, I have accepted the loss over so many photos, files, music. I was not responsible then. I didn’t think of it as something that would really be gone because of abuse of usage. But now that it’s gone, the best that I can do is to save all my files in the external hard drive that I have purchased recently. I am sure that way, I will be able to save the next batch of photos for who knows how long?