It is recommended, and a good idea to make a backup file of your RAW photos on an external drive or site, so if anything happens to the originals, you can always retreat your backup file,
I know this but rarely follow up on, Last week my house was robbed. Along with my photo gear, they stole my laptop which contained a good number of my photos from this past Winter. I say a good number because I don't have a copy of all my images backup anywhere.
My photo gear will be replaced, but some of my photos are gone forever.