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#21
In a nutshell, data isn't reasonably safe unless it exists in three places, such as on the computer, on an onsite backup drive, and on an offsite backup of some kind. Getting that backup drive was a great beginning and is much, much better than no backups at all but, if and when your budget can stand it, you should get a second one to keep offsite somewhere so you won't lose all your data if the worst should happen, such as a house fire that destroys your computer and you onsite backup.
I normally do not recommend using automatic backups since they normally require the backup drive to be kept connected to the computer at all times. An exception would be an external backup drive with automatic backup software that starts up whenever you connect the drive to the computer. However, for a drive to be a true backup, it should be kept powered down and disconnected from the computer and stored somewhere out of sight of the computer, such as in a drawer (preferably in another room but that's not always practical). Otherwise, it will susceptible to loss from malware, power outages, etc. the same as the data in your computer.
Keep in mind that any data that hasn't been backed up on the backup drive will be lost if it gets lost in the computer so frequent backups are imperative. Backing up on a schedule is fine but you should also run a backup whenever you add important data you don't want to lose to your computer.