Backup Strategies

[TheIT]

Several other threads have discussed the strategies people use to backup their work for safekeeping. I thought it would be nice to have a thread to collect the information. What do you do to make certain you don't lose your work?

Also, for those of you who write longhand first drafts, do you do anything special? I had a few very bad moments last week when I thought I had lost my notebook. Thankfully I found it, then spent the time to type the pages into the computer so I could make backup copies.

[Richard]

I have two online backup places - one on a dedicated site (www.strongspace.com) and one as part of my online notebook (www.backpackit.com).

[scarletpeaches]

I have two computers; a desktop and a laptop. I was away for a couple of days last week so decided, before I went, to do a major back-up-and-tidy-up. So, all my files went onto the laptop and I saved everything onto CD, then put everything from those CDs onto my desktop. Big mistake. WIP went from the laptop to CD, then onto the desktop, thereby overwriting the more 'advanced' document I had saved there entitled WIP, so I lost 4,000+ words, and ended up feeling angry and foolish.

Please, let this be a lesson to you. Don't make the same mistake I did.

[NeuroFizz]

160 Gigabyte external hard drives (totaly portable, plug into USB connection) are now just over $100 at Sam's Club. It's possible to plug, back-up, and unplug for safekeeping. Hardcopies are another story.

[scarletpeaches]

Note to self: Avoid contacting my dad for the hearty-laughter-and-I-told-you-so lecture as regards back-up.

Bad, scarletpeaches. Bad, bad, girl.

[azbikergirl]

I use a source (version) control system called Perforce, installed on another computer, to save revisions of my novels. (It was designed for software source code, but it works for Word docs too.) I can always revert back to a previous version if I need to, or retrieve the current. I also back up periodically to CD ROM, and I keep most of my WIPs on my PDA as well.

[Richard]

It's always worth having an off-site backup, just in case anything goes wrong.

[Lyra Jean]

I write long hand then when I'm done with a chapter or short story I type it up and print it out. Then I keep a hard copy in my binder. I also make hard copies for my friends to read. Although it's not part of my backup system and I made it for them to read. If I did lose my hard copy and computer copy then I could always ask my friends.

[Jamesaritchie]

I back everything up to an external hard drive that I can unplug and run with, should it be necessary. I also backup to CD, one of which is stored away from home. As a final safety measure, everything is also stored in an online briefcase in both .rtf and pdf, so I can access it from any computer, anywhere, at any time.

[TheIT]

I back everything up to an external hard drive that I can unplug and run with, should it be necessary. I also backup to CD, one of which is stored away from home. As a final safety measure, everything is also stored in an online briefcase in both .rtf and pdf, so I can access it from any computer, anywhere, at any time.

What is an online briefcase?

[Jamesaritchie]

Several other threads have discussed the strategies people use to backup their work for safekeeping. I thought it would be nice to have a thread to collect the information. What do you do to make certain you don't lose your work?

Also, for those of you who write longhand first drafts, do you do anything special? I had a few very bad moments last week when I thought I had lost my notebook. Thankfully I found it, then spent the time to type the pages into the computer so I could make backup copies.

Yes, I do something special. I scan my handwritten pages into the computer and save them as jpegs. These are then backed the same way I backup documents.

In a dire emergency, I can open one of these, stick it side by side with a word processor, and retype the thing.

Handwriting recognition technology is getting close to the point where I'll be able to scan them in as actual documents, but I find it isn't there yet, so right now scanning them in as images rather than documents works very well as a last ditch backup plan.

[Tirjasdyn]

Electronic copies on:

Thumbdrive (always most recent)
USB drive
Laptop and Desktop.
In my webspace, protect from spiders and such(must know passwords to get to it).

Hard Copies in files.

I try to back up my thumbdrive whenever I connect to something. :)

[DaveKuzminski]

Please remember to regularly check the readability of the backup when it's electronic. I've seen this happen too many times already in business settings where they thought they were backed up because they did it daily.

Unfortunately, in one office it turned out that their backups for almost three months were corrupt and unreadable. They were fortunate only that they kept so many that they had one that was usable. Even so, they lost three months worth of data. That that represented thousands of transactions that had to be re-entered.

[MarkPettus]

I'm anal about back-ups.

I write on my laptop, then save to a disc, copy to the desktop, print a hard copy, and email myself at work. Every day. I have finished manuscripts stored in three different states.

Hurricane? What hurricane?

[KTC]

I do pretty much the same thing as Mark P.

I lost a computer about 4 years ago. It was a piece of junk and it died. Power was just lost to it. My brother is a tech geek who works with both Toronto area hospitals and the airport...making sure their computers are secure and operating...or something like that. (He starts tech talking and I hear blah, blah, blah, blah...) I took my computer to him and he was unable to get anything out of it. I had 2 finished manuscripts. I was a closet writer at the time and never printed anything I wrote...fearing somebody would actually read it! I did not have backup. I lost everything. So, now, I make disk copies....more than 1 because you never know. And I also email myself at work and email my hotmail account and my yahoo account. I save it on 3 different computers. I'm always carrying a disk around. I'm obsessed with saving. And whenever I'm at one of the locations and I make changes I have to go through the whole process again to make every copy is updated.

[aruna]

I'm anal about back-ups.

I write on my laptop, then save to a disc, copy to the desktop, print a hard copy, and email myself at work. Every day. I have finished manuscripts stored in three different states.

Hurricane? What hurricane?

Io once lost a whole ms (luckily I had just sent acopy t my agent) so I have various methods. I used to use storage space on a German account I have, but then I moved to Yahoo Briefcase:

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc//home

I upload the latest versionthere every day after working on it, and there's stil loads of space left. Highly recommended!
I also email to my Yahoo account.

[Vanessa]

I do pretty much the same thing as Mark P.

I lost a computer about 4 years ago. It was a piece of junk and it died. Power was just lost to it. My brother is a tech geek who works with both Toronto area hospitals and the airport...making sure their computers are secure and operating...or something like that. (He starts tech talking and I hear blah, blah, blah, blah...) I took my computer to him and he was unable to get anything out of it. I had 2 finished manuscripts. I was a closet writer at the time and never printed anything I wrote...fearing somebody would actually read it! I did not have backup. I lost everything. So, now, I make disk copies....more than 1 because you never know. And I also email myself at work and email my hotmail account and my yahoo account. I save it on 3 different computers. I'm always carrying a disk around. I'm obsessed with saving. And whenever I'm at one of the locations and I make changes I have to go through the whole process again to make every copy is updated.

So very sorry for your loss. I know this was years ago, but do you still have your hard drive from that computer?

[KTC]

It's sitting disassembled in my brother's garage.

[scarletpeaches]

My God, KTC - my heart goes out to you. I panic when I lose a few thousand words. That must have been awful. :(

(Okay I know no-one died, but still...man...that sucks...)

[mistri]

I back up onto my laptop, my USB key, and my gmail account. I occasionally print out hard copies, too. The most I've ever lost is an essay I was working on when the computer crashed (years ago) on the day I had to hand it in. I nearly lost an entire manuscript once - the word file just went corrupt and turned it into squiggles. Luckily, I had backups all over the place. Now, I'm less scared of losing a file, and more scared of it suddenly becoming corrupt in one place and me not noticing for a while...

[KTC]

My God, KTC - my heart goes out to you. I panic when I lose a few thousand words. That must have been awful. :(

(Okay I know no-one died, but still...man...that sucks...)

Thanks Scarlet. It did kill me at first. I've had a long time to get over it, though. I just figure they weren't meant to be. They were my practice for the real thing. Or so I keep telling myself!

[RumBucuresti]

I'm anal about back-ups.

Safe, but a little uncomfortable i would say! http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/images/smilies/EmoteJaw.gif

[MarkPettus]

You have no idea.

[kristie911]

Okay, I am officially freaked out. I write on my laptop and other than one sort of current CD copy, that is the only place I keep it.

Please excuse me while I copy it on a CD, save it in a Swiss bank account, e-mail it to the FBI and print four copies to be kept in safe deposit boxes in four separate banks on four separate continents.

Or, maybe I'll make 2 back up disks, one for home and keep one at work.

[MarkPettus]

When Hurricane Andrew hit Homestead and South Miami, I was on the scene. The devastation was almost unbelievable. I found a box of video tapes in the middle of the street, and took them with me to see if I could track down the owners (They were not commercial videos, but home videos, and I thought I had found someone's wedding/family reunion videos, and was about to be their hero for finding and returning them).

The videos were all home-made porn. The poor housewife probably spent months wondering who had seen her in flagrante delecto. I did NOT try to track her down.

Lesson: It is the little things you didn't think about that mother nature will steal from you and deposit on someone elses door. Whether it is hurricanes, or tornados, or earthquakes, or a housefire... you are vulnerable, protect your documents and your valuables as well as you can.

[kristie911]

I wondered what happened to those...

Sorry...couldn't resist. :)

[AncientEagle]

I wondered what happened to those...



See? Remember what I told you when we knew the storm was coming in? We should burn these right now, I said. But, no. You insisted we'd want to play them again. Well, at least it's not that great a loss. They were about worn out.

[L M Ashton]

I've written an article (http://www.laurieashton.com/articles/data-backups.htm) on data backups that you can look at. But yes, regular backups are important, as is testing the backups and making sure you have off-site copies.

[mdin]

I back up onto my laptop, my USB key, and my gmail account.

That's what I do also. Computer + USB key = very safe.

If you don't have a gmail account, get one now. You can email your stuff to yourself, and if all you're doing is emailing word .docs, you won't ever run out of space.

If you need a gmail invite, PM me your email address.