I feel like I'm hijacking one of Eileen's future posts from over at Speak Coffee To Me, but I was so horrified when I heard this, I had to share.
Last night at about 3 am I sent Eileen an email telling her that I had just written 5,000 words in my novel (yes, I am very proud of this fact). This morning I woke up to receive an email back from her saying that her harddrive had crashed and she had lost the past month of her work.My heart dropped into my stomach at the thought. Now, I am not the most technologically savvy person. You might say I'm Carrie Bradshaw-esque with the lack of backing up my work and wondering if people can see me when they're online. I immediately thought of everything I've written - ever - being sucked away into oblivion and I started having heart palpitations.
I guess Eileen dropped her computer and the last time she had backed up was a month ago. Nothing is salvable beyond that point. Thankfully there were some stories and pieces of work that she had emailed to other people, one she had printed out, and one she had submitted to an online group. But there were two pieces in particular that she was working on furiously and now VOOSH - gone. As well as some important edits on another story she had in the works.I need to get an external harddrive and back up my stuff ASAP. Not to mention my computer is already on the fritz and having an internal meltdown. When I have it in my lap it feels like I'm holding a volcano. That definitely cannot be a good sign. Has anyone else every had something this awful and detrimental happen to them? How did you cope?
8 comments:
Don't despair completely yet. I'm gonna take it to the campus IT guys and see if they can recover files.
I back up by email. I have an external HD and back up there. I send copies to my publisher and editor and readers. I would hate to have my words gone.
Oh, totally hear you on this one. I 'lost' a chapter recently, had a mild panic, only to decide that I should just get on with it, started to rewrite it, and found an earlier version on my netbook. I really have to sort out the backups to avoid this. Tedious, but a necessity for writing I'm afraid. Gotta keep our scribblings safe.
My fiance (computer ace) recommends these FREE online back up systems:
Dropbox
LiveMesh
SugarSync
For things like the documents, the free space provided on their servers is more than enough for the important stuff.
Nice to meet you. Many years ago I had a word processor and I lost everything. Now I periodically save to the USB key flash drives. I guess they're not call USB key anymore. I just did this. I bought three. One for short stories and novellas, one for my epic fantasy and one for current work. Only the current work is still on my computer and it is running much faster. So for $12.00 each, I am safe.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, The Treasures of Carmelidrium.
I haven't decided what method to use - the boyfriend suggests dropbox but I'm paranoid about my stuff being kept on the net. I know that's ridiculous but I'll probably get an external harddrive.
(I'm clearly more concerned about this than Eileen is!)
This once happened to me. I still remember every horrific moment as if it's in slow motion. Now I back up in as many places as I can. It truly is a nightmare of epic proportions!
Happened to my work email about 6 months ago and it was beyond horrifying.
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