Yep, had a crash or two. One time a full external HD failure (actually an SSD that conked out) and one time just a freeze of my software. It’s not unique to laptops though. In the past we’ve had CD(J)-players crash on us too. Not often, but if you play enough gigs, sh*t’s gonna happen eventually.
In the case of the crash, I continued the night playing CDs from the basic CD-players I always have set up, then I swapped the external SSD for my spare external HDD and rebooted. 10 mins later I was back on the laptop. The second time I did the CD thing, rebooted and played normally for the rest of the night.
So, having a backup plan (in my opinion) is worth your time and effort, but that’s just me.
Greetinx,
Chuck