Foolproof method to back-up your writing?

freshpencils · Apr 19, 2007

I lost quite a bit of my writing when my computer died a few months ago. Some was backed up, but the larger part was saved only on my hard drive and it could not be retrieved. Of course, it was my own fault and I absolutely should have had a better back-up system in place. But I didn't and it has literally stopped me from writing because I'm scared to death I'll lose another huge chunk of writing.

The priority right now is for me to come up with a "foolproof" method of backing up my work. My computer doesn't have a CD burner. The back-up method I was using is 3.5" disks - dinosaurs. They get corrupted pretty easily and hold a very small amount of pages. Also, if/when my current computer dies, I don't know if disk drives will even be available any more. So I'd rather not rely on 3.5" disks as a back-up method.

In another AW thread, there is a discussion about flash drives. I had never heard of these. I called Dell to ask about them and the sales rep tried to sell me an external hard drive! He didn't feel a 4 gig flash drive has enough memory for a writer. I never intended to buy a flash drive from Dell - I just needed information about the product.

First of all, isn't 4 gigs enough to save one novel - say a 100,000 word novel?

Is it not cost efficient to save one novel per flash drive? In other words, when you want to work on your WIP, plug in one flash drive. If you want to edit your existing novel, plug in a different flash drive. And so on.

I'm not in a position to buy an external hard drive, or a CD burner, right now. It's my understanding that flash drives are found pretty inexpensively on ebay.

Any advice?

WildScribe · Apr 19, 2007

I have over 900 articles PLUS the first 60k of my WIP on my 512 flash drive, and it shows no signs of filling up.

For foolproof, though, I also zip the entire drive every so often and email it to myself. Gmail is great for this. They even encourage it. Good luck, and sorry about the crash.

ETA: Go to newegg.com or something for your flash drive... ebay + technology kinda scares me.

ETA2: I think that 3.5 drives will be available for a good long time, at least externally. External drives plug into the USB port, and are rather cheap.

Devil Ledbetter · Apr 19, 2007

WildScribe said:
I have over 900 articles PLUS the first 60k of my WIP on my 512 flash drive, and it shows no signs of filling up.

For foolproof, though, I also zip the entire drive every so often and email it to myself. Gmail is great for this. They even encourage it. Good luck, and sorry about the crash.

ETA: Go to newegg.com or something for your flash drive... ebay + technology kinda scares me.

I second the Newegg recommendation.

I save my novel on a separate harddrive, and occassionally burn it to a CD.

Mud Dauber · Apr 19, 2007

Thumb (flash) drives and email, all the way!

freshpencils · Apr 19, 2007

What is a 512 flash drive? 512MB?

freshpencils · Apr 19, 2007

I would really like to start using flash drives - "thumbs."

Thanks for the vote of confidence for these little gizmos. (They're so cute!)

freshpencils · Apr 19, 2007

I'm going to check out Newegg right now. Thanks!

stormie · Apr 19, 2007

freshpencils said:
What is a 512 flash drive? 512MB?

Yup.

And I third or fourth what others said. Thumb drive (you don't need more than 1 GB, email to yourself (I email it to three accounts), save it to cd, save it on hard drive.

Codger · Apr 19, 2007

Get your USB flash at...

your friendly, neighborhood Wal-Mart. (2GB MicroFlash $33.88)

aadams73 · Apr 19, 2007

You might also try emailing it to yourself at a gmail account.

Chumplet · Apr 19, 2007

Or if you're part of a webmail account and email it to yourself, the file will sit on their server.

Personally, I email my latest version to myself at work. Different server. I should get a flash drive, but I haven't got around to it. I think my husband has a couple, but they're his, not mine.

scarletpeaches · Apr 19, 2007

I have two computers.

I use the 128 pen drive to transfer stuff from the laptop onto the desktop and burn everything onto CD every week or so, keeping the 'reserve' copies on my pen drive and both computers. And sometimes I have hard copies too.

AnnieColleen · Apr 19, 2007

http://docs.google.com

Upload your file & save it there. (You can also work in the file on the site directly, but I prefer to upload.) It does have a size limit, so a 100,000-word novel might need to be split into two or three files, but there's no limit on how many files you can have.

The other nice thing about it is that you automatically have version control if you want to go back and look at something you changed.

Just Me · Apr 19, 2007

I have a flash drive for my writing and I make monthly backups of my entire PC using an external hard drive. Let's just say I like to err on the side of caution. :tongue

~JM.

stormie · Apr 19, 2007

Just Me said:
I have a flash drive for my writing and I make monthly backups of my entire PC using an external hard drive. Let's just say I like to err on the side of caution.

Let's just say we writers are a paranoid bunch.

Only kidding. Maybe. I don't know. Oh. Someone is looking over my shoulder. I think. Or maybe....

Jamesaritchie · Apr 19, 2007

Back up

I back my files to an external hard drive, to CD, though I'm switching to DVD, and to an online storage site. If this isn't enough, to heck with it.

brokenfingers · Apr 19, 2007

Use GSpace, it's great. It treats your gmail account like another drive (3 gigs too!) allowing you to click and drag whole folders onto your "g-drive"

You just need a gmail account. I don't know if you still need an invite to get one but if anybody does, just pm me for one.

Azure Skye · Apr 19, 2007

I save all my stuff on CD and usually make a hard copy.

scribbler1382 · Apr 19, 2007

I backup to second computer on my home network, USB drive, and I'm regularly pinged by my Yahoo schedule to backup to DVD (but mostly I just dismiss the notice and keep doing what I was doing). Beyond this, I'm usually only a day behind what I've written with a hardcopy printout and I have a scanner should things go really bad.

I've messed around with Google Docs and emailing stuff here, there and everywhere and even turning my Gmail account into a file server, but they seem to all just be extra layers of disorganization for me to abuse.

herdon · Apr 19, 2007

You can get a flash drive for pretty cheap. Personally, I'd say if you really want to be cautious then go ahead and buy a cd-burner then keep your backups off-site. After all, it ain't going to do you any good if your house burns down and takes your backups along with your computer.

If you aren't paranoid the cheapest way would be to get a free mail account like a yahoo.com account and email your manuscripts to this account and then move them to a backup folder.

Kristin Landon · Apr 19, 2007

Havlen's got a point. It's a really good idea to have a regular backup that you can retrieve from the Web, such as the Gmail idea. If you lose everything else, you've still got your work, as soon as you can get online.

I'd also suggest finding some kind of software that does automatic backups, to destinations you set at times you set (such as the middle of the night). That way you know it gets done.

Tallymark · Apr 19, 2007

Flash drives are excellent. You can get them pretty much anywhere (walmart, best buy, any store with some computer stuff), and all your computer needs is a USB port. A nice big flash drive (like 512 megs, or 1 gig) is a one-time buy, and it'll last you years and years. If all you're putting on it is writing files, it won't fill up for a long time (unless you're incredibly incredibly prolific

).

They're instantaneous; just plug it in at the end of the day, save, and eject. They also mean you can work on your stories if you're at someone elses computer. Seriously, just go to wal mart and ask someone there--they'll be happy to show you a decent selection (without trying to foist a whole hard drive on you!).

stormie · Apr 19, 2007

Tallymark said:
Seriously, just go to wal mart and ask someone there--they'll be happy to show you a decent selection (without trying to foist a whole hard drive on you!).

Yeah, I made the mistake of asking a sales associate at Staples for a simple USB line. Mind you, I like Staples. I could spend hours there going up and down the aisles just looking. But this certain person had the greatest sales pitch--very quick talker--and I fell for buying over $100 worth of stuff. Returned it two days later and just grabbed what I needed and bought that for about $15.

infinitus_kaze · Apr 19, 2007

I don't think there is a foolproof way to save a manuscript. Portable devices can break if dropped, become corrupted if exposed to static electricity, or just be defective in the first place and eat your data instead of saving it. I think the only thing that comes close to a foolproof plan is to save your manuscript in multiple places. I have two hard-drives on my computer (one for storage and one for programs) and I save my manuscripts on both. I also save it to floppy disk and cd. The more places you have a manuscript saved, the less likely you are to lose it. It takes a really unlucky person to back-up a manuscript in 4-6 places and have all of them fail at once.

Dave.C.Robinson · Apr 19, 2007

There is no perfect backup strategy. However there are good ones. The real minimum is one onsite and one offsite backup. I have an additional GMail account just for offsite backup.

A good plan would be to use a flash drive daily and offsite email daily. CD/DVD weekly.

Foolproof method to back-up your writing?

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