Computer shuts down- your day's work is lost.

Darzian said:

You must have a great computer! May I ask what company made it? If it hasn't ever crached in living memory, then that must be a very reliable company.

But then again, I have at least half a dozen software running at once.

I'd like to know because I hope to make a heavy laptop investment in the upcoming months.

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Hey Darzian

It's a Dell Vostro 1000 that still has windows XP, (which is probably why it never crashes!) with wordperfect. I bought it on-line at the time. Good machine, not-so-good customer service.

I have had this malady many times, and came up with a solution that raises many an eyebrow. I spent $200 and had grandpa's old Royal typewriter restored, and now my writing goes through that. Well, first draft is on paper; then I go to the Royal using my two-finger method; then the ms. goes into the computer for the final draft/polishing phase. At that point, if the computer goes bughouse, the worst case is retyping a few lines. --Brian

Darzian said:

I am now e-mailing myself the WIP at the end of every week, in case of total hardware collapse. I never considered it before, but attaching a Word file is real quick.

It's such a neat trick- I wonder why I never thought of it before. I got the idea from Artemis Fowl. Undoubtedly, plenty of you are already applying this tactic.

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Online backup is also another option. Most of them are relatively inexpensive. The only painful part is the first backup, which might take a while since it's doing everything. After that, it'll back up the files updated that day every night. You can also do a manual backup (clicking one button) if you want to do it earlier. Backs up the bookmarked links, too. This is one of the sites: http://mozy.com/ Up to two gig is free; after that, it's about $5 a month.