Go Back Up Your Work Right Now

Ye gads. I'm so sorry to hear that. It's demoralizing beyond belief, innit?

Fortunately, (completed novel) manuscript is saved on two computers, two cell phones, one iPod, a jump drive, and two memory sticks....so unless a meteor actually blows up my neighborhood (whichcase, I won't be around to worry about it) I'm safe. I think I have it in my g-mail too.

Thanks for the reminder. I just sent a copy of my WIP to my hotmail account. I hadn't done that since the end of June, and I've made a lot of significant changes since then.

My Mac crashed this weekend but fortunately it can be fixed and fortunately I do have backups of my important files all the time. But yes, it is very important.

By the way, if you only spill juice on your laptop keyboard, chances are it's still okay. The short may only be temporary. I have dumped a whole cup of soup on my laptop before and after it dried for a few days, the machine worked again. So there's hope.

The trick is not to fiddle overly much with it while it's drying out. Trying to turn it on can actually cause something to burn, and then it's really broke.

It should work the same way it does with cell phones. Let 'em dry out long enough, they usually work again.

maestrowork said:

My Mac crashed

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Just thought I'd highlight that.

I keep forgetting to back my stuff up. And since my 11-year-old surfs now (he looks at Pokemon and game cheat sites) there's a good chance he might unleash a virus and we're woefully unprotected--this could be a recipe for disaster.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Just thought I'd highlight that.

I keep forgetting to back my stuff up. And since my 11-year-old surfs now (he looks at Pokemon and game cheat sites) there's a good chance he might unleash a virus and we're woefully unprotected--this could be a recipe for disaster.

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Go get yourself some protection from TrendMicro's web-site. They're hands down the best security software I've ever used.

I keep a hard copy (print about once a week - smaller font, not double spaced), also keep a copy in Yahoo! Briefcase, so I can access it from any computer with internet, I save it there nearly every day. I really need to get another form of back-up - maybe on disk, but I think I'm well protected.

Four things a writer should do at least once a week. (Me--I'll do the following about once a day.)

1) Email the ms. to yourself
2) Back it up on a cd--put it somewhere far away from the computer.
3) Back it up on a thumb drive
4) Hardcopy it

*Put either the cd or thumb drive far away from the computer. In case of fire, floods, famine....

Helps me to stay calm.

I'm obsessive about printing out a hard copy at the end of a writing session (and feel guilty about wasting so many trees), but I also have an external hard drive that's programmed to back up all my data (not the software, which is easily replacable, but just my own files) automatically at 9 pm every day. That way, I don't have to think about it; it just happens. The hard drive is about the size of a man's wallet, plugs into a USB port, holds 40 gigs (or more?) and cost about a hundred bucks. Worth it for the convenience, as far as I'm concerned.

JD

It's so easy to get lax about doing this, and yet it's so important ! I learned my lesson a few years back, when my PC burst into flames and melted. Now it's copies everywhere, backups all the time, and memory sticks in every pocket!

I did once have water spill all over a laptop keyboard once - waited for it to dry out and it didn't work. But took it in for repairs, and it was ONLY the keyboard that had fried. Once that was replaced, all of my data was still there, not lost or corrupted.

So don't give up hope on saving that data yet !

MidnightMuse said:

It's so easy to get lax about doing this, and yet it's so important ! I learned my lesson a few years back, when my PC burst into flames and melted. Now it's copies everywhere, backups all the time, and memory sticks in every pocket!

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Burst. Into. Flames.



What happened?

Thumb drive?

It's when you get a USB port and SD card slot built into your left thumb. It's really great, but it makes it hard to pick your nose.

Thanks for the reminder, and I'm sorry to hear what happened. It's so important to back up; you just never know what's around the corner.

Last month my hard drive died without warning, and though I had multiple backups of my writing files, I lost other important things that I'd been meaning to back up but never got around to.

In short, never back up tomorrow what you can back up today.

My laptop is running again with a new hard drive, and I've changed my ways. Everything important is now backed up on my husband's computer, on a jump drive, on a CD, and remotely on gmail and X-drive.

PeeDee said:

Burst. Into. Flames.



What happened?

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Seriously. There I was, sound asleep on a Saturday morning - the power had gone out, but I didn't care, it was Saturday. My PC was turned off, naturally, and plugged into a surge protector.

Next thing I know, I hear the power come back on, roll over and ignore it. About three minutes later, I'm smelling smoke. It got stronger, and I opened my eyes to see two of my cats staring at my PC, and the smoke curling up from it.

I screamed, scrambled out of bed, pulled the cord - too late. The PC had burst into flames for NO reason, the hard drive had physically melted and the computer was a goner.

So was every bit of data inside.

Let that be a lesson to everyone! Back up your work!!!

Ack December, so sorry to hear that! Thanks for the reminder though. I actually keep my USB with all my novels and stuff on it in a fireproof safe .

PeeDee said:

It's when you get a USB port and SD card slot built into your left thumb. It's really great, but it makes it hard to pick your nose.

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You know this from experience?

A few years ago, I wrote on a dinosaur of a computer. It crashed and I lost everything. There's a chance I could have done something but I knew sod all about computers and by the time I had someone look at it, it was all gone.

Thankfully, I had hard copies of everything and in a way, it was a blessing as it forced me to go back to my older stuff and improve it through rewriting.

Muse, your computer was just trying to save us all from your incessant use of adverbs. What a brave and noble computer.

I got rid of the thumb drive in favor of a different sort of drive....but this one's really awkward. I can only use it when no one's home. I tried using it on a public library computer, and I got kicked out.

I don't see anything so great about a flash drive.

I save it on my Dad's PC as I don't have MSWord on my own yet. I just can't work on other software. It's weird.

I also handwrite my first draft and when I'm done typing it out I print it out and make a hard copy. I still have to type up some stories into my Dad's PC so I can save it on disc. But I do have hard copies so I'm safe. I was thinking about getting a small fire/flood proof safe but I don't know where I would put it.

rosemerry said:

I save it on my Dad's PC as I don't have MSWord on my own yet. I just can't work on other software. It's weird.

I also handwrite my first draft and when I'm done typing it out I print it out and make a hard copy. I still have to type up some stories into my Dad's PC so I can save it on disc. But I do have hard copies so I'm safe. I was thinking about getting a small fire/flood proof safe but I don't know where I would put it.

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The bathtub? The fireplace? Both of those have room to spare.

PeeDee said:

Muse, your computer was just trying to save us all from your incessant use of adverbs. What a brave and noble computer.

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I find those USB sticks invaluable as an extra backup unit.

Shadow_Ferret said:

I keep forgetting to back my stuff up. And since my 11-year-old surfs now (he looks at Pokemon and game cheat sites) there's a good chance he might unleash a virus and we're woefully unprotected--this could be a recipe for disaster.

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Shadow, you sound like a prime candidate for a public service announcement: To Prevent the Spread of Viruses, Always Surf with Protection.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Just thought I'd highlight that.

I keep forgetting to back my stuff up. And since my 11-year-old surfs now (he looks at Pokemon and game cheat sites) there's a good chance he might unleash a virus and we're woefully unprotected--this could be a recipe for disaster.

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Please, please, please go get some protection (I sound like my mother). If your computer is compromised, it could be sending out all sorts of things (spam, more viruses) to other computers.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Thumb drive?

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You sometimes hear them called that; thumb drives, flash drives, USB drives. All the same thing (as far as I know anyway).

You can buy one that is plenty large enough for text file backups for $19 at Best Buy.

I just picked up a huge (500gb) external hard drive the other day ($250!), but it's mostly for the thousands of photos I'm scanning.

My backup system is pretty simple -- I wrote a .bat to do my copying for me. One of these days I'll figure out how to use Linux's built-in back-up software and then I'll never have to boot up Windows again except to play the Sims 2.

Anyway, I have a second hard drive inside my computer that I make sequential backups to, and a small flash drive that I store the latest copy of my WIP on before I go to bed.

I have a larger flashdrive for travel (with Portable OpenOffice on it. Yes, I know it's overkill, but it's so cool; if I'm ever in some exotic locale and someone desperately needs a spreadsheet program, I am so there for them) but I haven't had a chance to use it yet.

rosemerry said:

I also handwrite my first draft and when I'm done typing it out I print it out and make a hard copy. I still have to type up some stories into my Dad's PC so I can save it on disc. But I do have hard copies so I'm safe. I was thinking about getting a small fire/flood proof safe but I don't know where I would put it.

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I've seen small laptop or paper-sized safes that would probably slide right under the bed or on a top shelf in the closet. I think an off-site backup is a good idea, too. While I've never tried emailing my work to myself, I hear lots of people do it.

I've considered maybe scanning in some of my old stories myself lately. I just got a new scanner and it came with what's supposed to be fantastically accurate OCR, but I haven't tested it yet.

I burn all my work to cd every single month (and keep the old discs just in case), I keep back up copies on two computers as well as my handy dandy flash drive. Those things are great. I plan on getting a second one just for back up next year. I learned my lesson with my very first novel with the ever problematic MS Works, that liked to crash and corrupt everything it touched. Ever since switching to word perfect and sticking to frequent back ups, I have never lost a piece of writing since. That's not to say it still can't happen, but the chances are much smaller than they used to be.