It's gone

musicalzoo · Sep 20, 2007

I had a MS I had been working on for probably six months. Keep in mind that I could not work on it every day, simply because I have bills to pay!

well, I had finally gotten enough done that I was tired of looking at it. I needed a break. I emailed my mom a copy because she wanted to read it ( she's very supportive and will call me on inconsistencies!)

Well, fast forward some time, and I decided that it is all a big huge 200 page pile of garbage. And yes.

I

deleted

it

Fast forward a couple of more months, and I decide that it really wasn't that bad. Now I don'y exactly remember deleting it but I must have, because its gone.

Ok, call mom (who saves everything) she cant find it. HAck into her computer with PC Anywhere to look for myself. nope, not there.

its gone.

all that work.

it was such a good story too.

gonna go through my PC one last time to see if I can find it anywhere, but I really think its really REALLY gone.

<<<off to sob in corner now

Sage · Sep 20, 2007

Did you delete the e-mail on your computer that you sent to her? If not, it should still be there.

Also, check your recycle bin.

Siddow · Sep 20, 2007

Have you looked in your own email?

musicalzoo · Sep 20, 2007

No, its not there, I even checked in her email files to see if she still had it in there.

recycle bin emptied often. sent emails deleted once a month.

on my way to check to see if i saved a copy of it elsewhere on the computer (sometimes I will)

Stew21 · Sep 20, 2007

What about temp files or where you have default set for auto back-ups?

musicalzoo · Sep 20, 2007

HOLY WONDER OF WONDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found a roughdraft of it! It's not the whole thing, but a good draft of it, enough for me to work with!!!!!!!!!!!!

YIPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

it was saved in some obscure file with other drafts of long forgotten bunnies!

preyer · Sep 20, 2007

isn't there a programme that captures every keystroke you ever made? i want to say it's like forty bucks off the shelf. used by wives to catch cheating husbands.

Stew21 · Sep 20, 2007

mostly, just make sure you save to more than one location, and that you resist the urge to delete. A lot of the stuff you write and think is shit, ends up being useable somewhere else or the piece is worth reworking.

Do Not Delete.

No go find yahoo! briefcase, a thumb drive and email a copy to yourself.

glassquill · Sep 20, 2007

I'm glad you found it. :Hug2:

Now, be sure never to make that same mistake again.

writingmom · Sep 20, 2007

sorry

I'm glad that i've made some copies to a c-d, however now I will have to remember where I placed them :Shrug:

writingmom · Sep 20, 2007

glad you found thgem !

musicalzoo · Sep 20, 2007

I emailed myself a copy and mom - then went into her computer and saved it in a password protected file so she cant delete it! lol

Rolling Thunder · Sep 20, 2007

The easiest way I've found to protect work is to use a RW-CD. Partition the drive (a program like Partition Magic makes it a snap) and set up one partition for writing files. When you finish work for the day send it to the CD. You can even send the entire partition or selected folders if you chose. Leave the CD in the drive and use it for a week then take it out and put it in a safe place. Use a fresh CD and then swap them back and forth on a weekly basis.

This way, if something happens to your computer or drive, you have a secondary backup. Yeah, it takes discipline to make it work, but then, so does writing.

melaniehoo · Sep 20, 2007

I save a backup on an external hard drive AND email it to myself. I would crawl in a hole and die if I lost all this work!

Glad you were able to track it down!

Saint Fool · Sep 20, 2007

ditto ... plus I print out everything - just in case of some humongous electrical overload ... or something.

southernwriter · Sep 20, 2007

preyer said:
isn't there a programme that captures every keystroke you ever made? i want to say it's like forty bucks off the shelf. used by wives to catch cheating husbands.

I've heard of that. I know someone who claims "not" to use it. Ha. What's it called, and does it show up in your program files? What would you look for if you wanted to know if it was installed on your computer?

canteloupe1020 · Sep 20, 2007

The keystroke catcher will slow your work, noticeably. The same problem happened to me with my first manuscript: I mailed it to musicalzoo's mom.

Actually I changed computers and backed up everything on CDs, but when I went to reinstall on the new computer (I deleted everything from the old first--yeah, I know), only my MS was missing. Luckily I had a print out, something I continue to do, because I can't edit without a hard copy, but I keep two flashdrives with all copies, renaming each copy every time I make significant changes.

I went back to editions with wording cut recently to collect some of the deleted scenes to use in sequels to the original.

Thank God I found them. Or thank someone else if it suits you.

PeeDee · Sep 20, 2007

I rarely delete anything. Even scenes I know went in the wrong direction get saved, at least until that work is done successfully.

The reason being, it may be garbage, it may be terrible...but who knows? A year later, I might stumble on the file, have no memory of it at all, and go "You know, this isn't bad." Or I might think, "You know, the writing is garbage, but the story idea is okay. And I know how to make it work."

It happens.

Still, I'm glad you found it. Every now and then on the AW forums, there's a thread called "It's Gone" that appears, and of course, you know what it's going to be about. I guess this one had closest thing to a happy ending we'll get.

a_sharp · Sep 20, 2007

I've got stuff on CD that I wrote back in 19__ nevermind! I never delete and it's paid off many times.

You know, those little USB sticks can hold a lotta stuff. I've got a 128MB Crucial stick with my WIP and lots of other projects. It's about 1/4 full.

Wolvel · Sep 20, 2007

Luckily I have a original hard copy(notebook I wrote it in) incase I screw up and delete.

Good thing I never delete anything.

wayndom · Sep 20, 2007

I've always tried to subscribe to the "never delete anything" wisdom, and each time I've strayed, I've been painfully reminded of the wisdom.

After my first novel was published, I figured, why keep it on my hard drive? Hell, I've got several bound copies, in different languages, yet. So I deleted it. Can't remember why offhand, but I recently spent a day or so kicking my own ass for deleting it...

I now keep copies of everything on three different hard drives (hard drives always fail, and there's no way to tell if they'll fail next year or in five minutes), and WIP's on a "thumb drive," one of those flash memory thingies you plug into the USB port and the 'puter sees it as a hard drive.

But all the REALLY important stuff gets burned onto (one-use, not rewritable) CD's -- dirt cheap, holds a bunch of stuff, and never deteriorates or fails. I still have to get a DVD burner, though, to permanently store all my 8 megapixel photos...

wayndom · Sep 20, 2007

a_sharp said:
I've got stuff on CD that I wrote back in 19__ nevermind! I never delete and it's paid off many times.

You know, those little USB sticks can hold a lotta stuff. I've got a 128MB Crucial stick with my WIP and lots of other projects. It's about 1/4 full.

You can get them as big as 2 gigabytes now, and they're not even expensive. By the time I finish typing this, they'll probably be available at twice the capacity and half the price as when I started.

wayndom · Sep 20, 2007

preyer said:
isn't there a programme that captures every keystroke you ever made?

I have a program like that -- it's called, WordPerfect.

Just kidding -- sorta...

wee · Sep 20, 2007

Rllgthunder said:
The easiest way I've found to protect work is to use a RW-CD. Partition the drive (a program like Partition Magic makes it a snap) and set up one partition for writing files. When you finish work for the day send it to the CD. You can even send the entire partition or selected folders if you chose. Leave the CD in the drive and use it for a week then take it out and put it in a safe place. Use a fresh CD and then swap them back and forth on a weekly basis.

This way, if something happens to your computer or drive, you have a secondary backup. Yeah, it takes discipline to make it work, but then, so does writing.

Watch out for those RW's. I read somewhere that they have a shelf life, and data starts to deteriorate over time. After reading that I acquired a backup hard drive that plugs into the USB (like a huge pen drive) and it goes into the fire proof safe. Speaking of which, it's been a while....

wee

JimmyB27 · Sep 21, 2007

wee said:
After reading that I acquired a backup hard drive that plugs into the USB (like a huge pen drive)

I have one those - it's really cool. More expensive than an external hard drive, but since I'm living out of a rucksack at the moment, its size makes it much more practical.
I also have two flash drives that I back up regularly to.

It's gone

musicalzoo

Sage

Our Lady of Parentheticals

Siddow

I'm super! Thanks for asking

musicalzoo

Stew21

musicalzoo

preyer

excessively spartan

Stew21

glassquill

RB's favourite chewtoy

writingmom

Happy To Be !

writingmom

Happy To Be !

musicalzoo

Rolling Thunder

melaniehoo

And thus we begin the edits

Saint Fool

southernwriter

Born Under a Bad Star

canteloupe1020

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

a_sharp

Somebody give me an A

Wolvel

Write the Damn Book!

wayndom

wayndom

wayndom

wee

just a little

JimmyB27

Hoopy frood