Besides backing-up my ~/ directory weekly I backup daily my working
directories such as ~/Mail or in my case ~/axhome since I use applix for
word processing and spreadsheet. My /etc directory is baked-up monthly.
So I was fast back in business when recently my HD failed except some of
the home directory files were absent of which only one I could not, unfortunately
reconstruct. Of the few files absent they were all of the .* type such as .procmailrc.