panicking panicking

Goldenleaves · Oct 13, 2012

My new WIP is being created in scrivener, I'm in the middle of Ch3 and I just logged on - all the body text has disappeared from all the scenes!

Not being technically minded I thought it would be safe stored in dropbox, now I realise I don't even understand dropbox and have no idea how to retrieve my work.

I wish I was dead, why did I stop using word and e-mailing to myself. Oh hell, just realised, tranferred previous book to scrivener too! Gotta go check it.

Any ideas?

Goldenleaves · Oct 13, 2012

The other ones seem okay. I'm taking deep breaths. It's only two and a half chapters. I think I might actually survive. So - I'm e-mailing scrivener help, but it's

the weekend and I won't be able to write on Monday and Tuesday! Sod it, I'm gonna go coffin shopping to cheer myself up.
:gaah

alleycat · Oct 13, 2012

First, take a deep breathe and calm down. It might not be as bad as you think.

I've played around with Scrivener for Windows, but I'm not an expert on it. Maybe someone who is will come around and help you out.

In the meantime, don't do anything foolish because of your frustration.

leahzero · Oct 13, 2012

FIRST OF ALL, Scrivener should be set up to automatically make backups. Depending on how many backups you allow, it might be as simple as just restoring one of them.

This post has more information about how to access Scrivener's backups:

http://martinsketchley.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/scrivener-dropbox-and-backups/

If this doesn't work, here's how to find your files in Dropbox. (I've done this before because I worked on a project AFTER I lost some files, and didn't want to lose my new work by restoring a backup. You can individually restore files with this method.)

Go to the Dropbox site.
Find your Scrivener project folder (Title.scriv).
Inside that folder, go to Files > Docs.
Right-click on an RTF file and select Previous Versions.

Now you can see all the previous versions of these files. One of them will have the text before it was erased. Unfortunately, you're going to have to browse through a bunch of files named ###.rtf until you find the right ones.

leahzero · Oct 13, 2012

Also, a recommendation:

Compile your document at the end of every day and save it somewhere safe, outside of your Scrivener directory. Then you'll always have a copy of the full manuscript in case anything goes wonky with individual files.

Williebee · Oct 13, 2012

Yay, Leah!
One other bit of advice? 3-2-1 (Have 3 copies. Have them in 2 storage mediums .. say on the computer, in the cloud, on a jump drive... and have 1 copy geographically separate from the other two.)

A small piece of paranoid precaution prevents a pack of panic later.

retlaw · Oct 13, 2012

Hey Williebee - For "cloud" backup, I just email it to myself using any number of free email websites (gmail, etc).

RE: the issue at hand - r u using windows? did you power down ur computer? then u should have created a restore point.

Start Menu
Control Panel
System and Security
System
Restore system and settings from a restore point

Goldenleaves · Oct 13, 2012

retlaw said:
Hey Williebee - For "cloud" backup, I just email it to myself using any number of free email websites (gmail, etc).

RE: the issue at hand - r u using windows? did you power down ur computer? then u should have created a restore point.

Start Menu
Control Panel
System and Security
System
Restore system and settings from a restore point

Thanks so much everyone - yes it's windows and yes I powered down after last writing session,

Apologies for the horrible panic but I've been trying to schedule my writing and - hey, that's all irrelevant.

I just got back from a birthday thing and people're coming over any minute so I can't even try anything yet, but I'll be able to get on it tomorrow.

SO much appreciate you guys feeding back here. It helps to know someone out there understands and the suggestions are enormously welcome. Thanks to you my laptop doesn't have teethmarks.

The coffin shopping thing isn't as bad as it sounds, apologies, it's just some research I've been needing to do,

Ah dammit, just burned the coconut rice.

I appreciate all the help and feel good about going in to try the fixes ASAP.

So, alleycat, leahzero, Williebee and Retlaw, I hope the next 24 hours are simply excellent for all of you because this has been such a help to me.

wandering · Oct 13, 2012

Here is a link to their forum and doing a search might get you some answers: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=30

Goldenleaves · Oct 14, 2012

Having relooked at the problem (no joy) and consulted everything available; other people have had the same kind of problem and it did get fixed. Something about the text clearing off elsewhere and often being very hard to locate..

What worked for them isn't working for me and I don't remember doing what they say they did to cause the problem (but anything's possible).

I've decided to wait until tech help gets back to work tomorrow. Time zones means I'll be waiting till late afternoon but I'm babysitting now until wednesday.

From now on I'll be saving all text from every session on word and externally too. It is, after all, only a bit of a first draft.

This could be fate telling me to

A. Be more careful.

&

B. Chill out.

Well, fine. Ommmmmm. Grrr. Ommmmm.

retlaw · Oct 14, 2012

BTW, Golden - love your Location.

panicking panicking

Goldenleaves

Benefactor Member

Goldenleaves

Benefactor Member

alleycat

Still around

leahzero

The colors! THE COLORS!

leahzero

The colors! THE COLORS!

Williebee

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

retlaw

Goldenleaves

Benefactor Member

wandering

Wandering the west

Goldenleaves

Benefactor Member

retlaw