Yes, I feel safer storing my important files on an external hard drive or CD since files on an external drives and CD are less likely to be deleted or infected by a virus .
A few years ago, Windows crashed/break and I lose all my files which were on my hard drive since I need to delete Windows to reinstall Windows, but my files on my external hard drives are safe, and can be open from another computer.
I definitely feel safer! I've had issues with internal harddrives dying so having a backup on an external source is great. Of course, now I ALSO worry about those harddrives crashing. Maybe I should start backing up really important stuff to one of the online cloud backup thingies?
I'm always a bit paranoid of those. if you have everything safely stored on an usb stick, someone may steal it. that's why i always keep them hidden because they contain personal files and stuff, though i've got password protection too.
