A Writer's worst Nightmare

silverdream — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:50:09 -0800

My computer crashed last week. It hadn't shown any signs of slowing down, having problems, losing disk space... nothing was wrong with it, then while I was just fiddling around on the internet after a particularly strenuous Friday, BOOM. My hard-drive was completely erased. Every homework assignment, story, poem, NOVEL that I've written in the past 2-3 years is completely gone. Okay, maybe a few survived in some format, but the majority of my documents weren't backed up. Yeah, that was stupid, I know, but like I said, my computer displayed no terminal symptoms before it died. ...So, yeah, this year's NaNo is gone. Thank god I still have the hardcopy of my '09 novel, but still. I'm still kind of in shock. The horror is hitting me in little spurts. Honestly, I'm almost glad, because I was planning on doing a MAJOR edit and this way I can just start from scratch, but there was so much I've written that just... doesn't exist anymore. Anybody else had this happen to them? How did you cope with losing all of that work?

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Horselover150 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:06:45 -0800

It is extremely disapointing and very depressing. I had that happen when I was 10. I had been writing an information book on Evolution and Creation and I had close to 10k wors, not a lot but back then I considered it a huge document. XD My computer crashed and I lost my whole book. Last year my brother lost his whole book and it was almost 100k, he was dumbfounded. You can try to take the hardrive to a copmuter specialist and see if they can recover anything, but I don't know.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Angryman — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:10:52 -0800

I had something similar happen to me when I first started writing. I had finally convinced myself to start writing my stories, and wrote the first "chapter" of my first story (it didn't actually have chapters), saved it on my flash-drive, and was going to get back to it. It took me about two weeks to convince myself to get back to writing, turned on my computer... and it wouldn't start up right. It took me almost a year to get my computer fixed so I could start writing again. The only good thing out of it was that it gave my thoughts time to stew and work out plots and characters.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

KatiePoet — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:37:46 -0800

Oh no! Let this be a lesson to us all: back up, back up, back up! Save it somewhere on the cloud! Like googledocs :) This almost happened to me, too. I'm a USB fanatic. I carry my stories/poems/research/entire life around my neck, wear it like an ultra nerdy necklace with me wherever I go. One day, I decided to do some laundry, and took off whatever shirt I was wearing in front of the washer and tossed it in, not realizing that precious USB had also gotten fallen into the machine's swirl of file death. But thank goodness! My USB survived, unscathed for the most part. After that, I immediately backed up on the cloud, and vowed to do so at least once a week. Well, it's been awhile since I've backed up. Time to do it. My life would have been over if that USB stopped working! And I'm not exaggerating, ok maybe just a little, but not by much ;) But do try to take your computer to a techie. Hubby has recovered many a lost file for this scatterbrained writer.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Angryman — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:32:11 -0800

I really don't like things like the cloud. I would rather use two USB flash-drives to back things up on.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

whitedove — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:19:00 -0800

The cloud, a secure server, a flash drive, an external hard-drive, an email account special for that one use (sending chapter files to yourself), hard copies in folders or a fire proof safe, re-saving in a different program. There are lots of ways to back things up and using at least two is not a bad idea.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Red Queen — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:05:06 -0800

Oh my god, that's IS a nightmare :O Take a deep breath, don't scream at innocent bystanders, and here's some chocolate. Always helps me... I had this happen once when I still used floppy disks to save my files (no, I'm not THAT old :P). Apparently, my dad needed a disk to save something for his bookkeeping, and poof, gone were my files. I've had at least two copies of everything since then; right now, I'm counting five. Computer, netbook, USB drive, external hard drive, and a USB drive at my parent's house, updated every time I visit. Oh. Six. I email a .zip file to myself every few months. Sounds paranoid, but... never again >.>

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

jswwrites — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:58:34 -0800

Ugh, so sorry!!!! At the end of Oct my hard drive had to be wiped completely, but I had backed up because in 2000 I'd lost all my family photos from a hard drive crash. In Dec right before exams my daughter's hard drive crashed and she lost a year's worth of stuff because she hadn't...My husband's hard drive crashed last week, too! (wow, that's a lot of crashing!) During NaNo I backed up several times a day, and also emailed my work to myself daily and put it in a file (which is good for copyright issues, too). I have a 1.5 terabyte portable drive and use it religiously! It's a hard lesson, but it seems like one we ALL have to learn the hard way. Everyone I know that backs up religiously does it because they've lost a hard drive unexpectedly. You can use online services like Carbonite that do it behind the scenes, or Dropbox that you have to do yourself. I love Time Machine on my Mac, because it does it behind the scenes as long as my external hard drive is plugged in, and it backs up EVERYTHING - your programs, your photos, your bookmarks... When you do a restore, your desk top looks exactly the same.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Mikiki — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:04:20 -0800

Oh my Gosh, that's horrible :( I totally feel for you, even though I've never had it that bad before. (Knocks on wood)

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Mikiki — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:13:33 -0800

Normally, even though it doesn't happen to me very often, I go into a depressed state where I don't write for a whole day. (That's bad for me) I mean, until I get a new idea because obviously if I lose a good portion of a story I'm going to abandon it and start another. I've had it happen to me once, my computer just shut down with no warning, and I lost a 10k word story I had been working on the whole day. It's nothing compared to losing everything, that would just be horrible D: I don't have a backup thing, and I should, but I never get to actually buying one. I just write and save every once in a while, and I hope that my dear computer doesn't fail me. If it did, however, I would probably be shattered. I'm almost at 200 pages in one of my stories and it's taken me a good 4 months to write it (on top of homework, school, and actually eating every few days). If I lost all of my documents, I'd be lost. I hope that somehow it'll all be better for you :P It's like having someone randomly burn all of your hard work, but digitally. It makes me want to yell at my computer, but sadly it has no feelings that I can hurt xD

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

whitedove — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:36:57 -0800

Somewhat related story. A year or two ago, while at college, I wrote a short story, that I saved to my computer and my back-up flash drive. I printed a copy to edit and then emailed a copy to my Mom, who printed it so that she could read it. I went looking for it a while ago, and it was not on my computer anywhere, it was not on my flash drive anywhere. It was not in my any of my email accounts. It was not in any of my Mom's email accounts. The hard copies are gone too. There were no less than six copies of this story and they all just vanished without a trace. Just gone. And it was so long ago, I really don't remember what I wrote to even rewrite it! There are some things we should just put down as "It wasn't meant to be." I think this is one of them.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Red Queen — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:27:57 -0800

Okay, how weird is it that this just gave me a story idea? ô.O

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

CountryGirl13 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:01:22 -0800

That is dreadful. I couldn't imagine how that would be. So, get a flash drive/ USB thing to save your stuff on. You can buy cute ones shaped like animals and stuff ^^ so it would be harder to lose.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

CountryGirl13 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:16:11 -0800

Also, you can send documents to your Kindle. Kindle Fires have cloud storage, so you would have double the protection. I think they have automatic document backup on any Kindle.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

becca Z — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:21:41 -0800

Something like that happend to me... not as bad, but I know what it feels like. See, I wrote my novel by hand, or most of it anyway. So, I'm stilllllll typing it. Yes, It's Feb. and I am still typing. SO anyway, in December, I was typing, I saved it, and went back later, and 10,000 words were GONE poof. just gone. Yeah, so that's my sob story. So, I know how you feel!

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Voirey-Linger — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:58:12 -0800

My friend lost a story that was almost ready for the editor, along with her partials and revisions. I learned from that one. I do Dropbox, a flash drive and back up to a second laptop. I've never had a computer crash (yet) but i live in terror of losing all of it. Seconding trying the tech if recovery is worth the cost to you, but be aware that you might shell out a few hundred and not get the files you want.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Nianne — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:28:01 -0800

So sorry to hear that! I know what it's like to mourn that kind of loss. The first big story I wrote (I was like 12) was all by hand, and when I was finished I left it in a pile on the computer table for about two weeks and then it disappeared. Me: Where's my story? Dad: I thought you were already done typing that. Me: No.... Trash barrel: It's like having a pet die, isn't it? I don't know if there is any way to cope except to remember that you've got the time and heart to have many, many more words, and better ones. Rewrite the story again, even if it seems daunting, and the essence of the best of the old story will seep into the new one, even if you think you forgot some of your best lines. These days I just email everything to myself.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

CountryGirl13 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:14:59 -0800

I would save stuff on a tablet, also, since you can edit, it's portable, and safe.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Risa Koroka — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:36:16 -0800

I remember having something similar happen to me. It was a couple years ago or so, and I had three chapters' worth of a story all written out and saved on a USB and my computer. I went to type more one day, and somehow...poof! Everything was gone except the title page. I remember staring in shock at the document for a long time before reality sank in and I started saying "where'd it go?" over and over.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

PC17 — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:44:27 -0800

Not quite to the same extent, but I can relate: I usually do an all right job of backing up my work (and by 'all right' I mean I managed not to lose everything in between my once-or-twice-a-month backups), and I actually managed to last December (of 2010) before my computer crashed and took everything with it. So, overjoyed at that fact, I open up my backups to get back to work on my 2010 NaNovel of 52,000 words, and it wasn't there. After staring at the screen and checking over my list of files at least a dozen times, I finally realized that I kept my NaNovel on my desktop during NaNo and hadn't moved it to my writing folder yet. So, when I backed everything up, I completely forgot about my poor desktop'd NaNo. I was so heartbroken when I realized what had happened (and am still now a little bit when I think of it well over a year later) and I seriously could have cried. It was like losing a group of friends that had kept my company for the last month. I didn't write anything for a while after that (maybe a couple of weeks), and then tried to rewrite bits of that story over again with no luck (it was like watching one of those movies that you've seen a million times and starts to get boring because you've seen it all before), but eventually got back into the swing of things and created what are hopefully better stories and equally bizarre and awesome characters. Anyway, just throwing in my own story of loss, and telling you that you have my deepest sympathies. So sorry that you lost everything. :( Hopefully it's just cleaning the slate for bigger and better things to come. (And, if nothing else, your story prompted me to backup things for the first time in a couple weeks)

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Riven — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:53:15 -0800

Same thing happened to me a few years back Had black out while I was in the middle of writing and when the power finally came back on my hard drive was clean. Stories, music, movies, shows, anime, manga, comics, artwork, everything gone. Was so depressed Y_Y But I eventually came to see it as an opportunity as far as my writing was concerned. Used it as a chance to let go of stories I was never going to finish and had hanging over my head, and I also used as a chance to rediscover my interest in the stories I did want to finish by reconstructing all the data for them and that allowed me to see plot holes and angles that I previously hadn't been able to see because I was so attached to the work I had already put in and didn't want to change. So as horrible and depressing as this experience can be, it can also be a great one for those willing to take the opportunity. Additionally, this is why I also back all my stories up on four different hard drives now; my computers, my laptops, my external hard drive, and a second external hard drive thats just for the story data and that only gets plugged in to update the files on it now xD

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

transience — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:44:35 -0800

That happened to me too. I had a lot of stuff - including a visual art portfolio and finished novels - that got lost over the various computer crashes I've had over the last couple of years. Last time the computer crashed, I had all of my stuff backed up on a USB stick but it got lost and then a week or so later, the computer crashed suddenly and the person backing up files and restoring the computer didn't put the items on the desktop on the USB stick. So I lost quite a few things. Luckily I found most of them another another USB. But still. I still mourn the loss of my second finished novel. It was the first one I wrote that I actually thought had an okay plot with character development and twists. But mainly, I just cope by telling myself that most of those stories weren't getting published anyways and I can always do better. I may not do a better job of the same exact story, which might sound disappointing but it allows me to take a fresh look at my old ideas and not feel like such a cheater. I'm much more likely to edit some of those stories and to work on my portfolio now that I've lost those files. But I am really sorry that you lost all of your work. It's the worst feeling in the world, I know.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Saspirilla — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 07:09:07 -0800

After getting half-way through a rewrite of NaNo 09 (around 35k words) my flash drive decided it needed reformatting. Was frustrating and incredibly annoying, but I hadn't written anything in months and I'd already started formulating a new rewrite. But it still hurt clicking the 'wipe everything' button.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

MurillionBlue — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:34:58 -0800

I had something similar (although nowhere near as bad) happen a while ago. Fortunately it was before Nano, but... It was before I had any sort of large memory space to store stuff, so I relied on USB sticks. One of those USBs had all of my personal projects (stories, art etc). I had backed it up a while before (about a month), and then it died. The computer did not acknowledge its existence. The problem was, I had a story I'd been working on and which had recently had a major overhaul on there, and I didn't have a backup of the updates to it. And there was another story that I had no other copy of (except a basic concept scribbled down into my school diary). I recently had the opportunity to ask a computer-savvy friend if he could get the files off that USB, and it turned out it was impossible. Bleep. Oh well, I've had another go at the overhaul of the work-in-progress (since I knew I wasn't getting the original back). And I don't know if the other one fulfilled its intended purpose (it was an attempt at a scary story, but I have no way to tell if something's scary or not). And now I distrust the brand of the USB that died. Especially since a couple of weeks after that I lost another USB of data, which stored most of my non-story documents, all the files I'd downloaded for the last few months/years. And had the same brand. Curse you, Lexar!

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

mangolimeade — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 07:32:09 -0800

Same thing happened to me over the summer. My computer was acting up for weeks and then BAM it stopped working. Every writing project that I'd been working on since I was little completely erased. I got a new hard drive, though unfortunately none of my past life could be recovered. We still have the drive though incase it could be fixed.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Angryman — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:24:41 -0800

At least you had some warning before it crashed.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

myviolettears — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 19:04:08 -0800

During the last week of NaNo my computer just wouldn't turn on. I was using it the night before to write and when I pressed the power button, nothing. I fliped out and remebered I have a word copy and a copy in the cloud. I used my school computers and my main family computer for as much as I could but I was so behind. I had to write the remianing 3k on my phone. Turned out, the battery had been moved a bit (it's a laptop) and it just wasn't correctly. It still needed fixing (the DVD drive had burnt out) but everything was 'fine'. Aside from the fact it's 3 years old and I use it for high-end video editing and there is about 3GB space left. (Yes, I have deleted all my junk I never use off there) But this is the second time for that computer and third time in November in three years in a row. (First was main computer, hard drive crashed, second was my laptop. Still not sure what happened but I lost everything)

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

myviolettears — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 19:06:36 -0800

That saved my NaNo. The cloud and my USB.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Angryman — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 19:25:46 -0800

I don't know if your laptop is like mine, but mine has a battery-release lock (to prevent the battery-release from accidentally being pull). However, it keeps getting caught on things, so it's pretty much useless. They just need to make a cover for the battery-release.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Earthsick — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:35:56 -0800

I actually think that my hand and arm problems outweight all data loss problems. You can always write a new book. Sure, the loss of your old stories is horrible, but think about it: at least you can type for a longer period of time. Other people don't have this luxury (anymore). It's hard if you have to fight for every word.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

42n8 Me — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:31:53 -0800

Wow. My condolences. I'm backin' my stuff up NOW! :-\

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Alasse Irena — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:35:16 -0800

That is horrible. Happened to me once - laptop got stolen. Many many things lost. I was horrified and tried not to think about it for a while, then, luckily, I found by chance a USB stick with some of my old things on it, which made me feel a little bit better. Not all of them, though....

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

S.L Mahon — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:39:20 -0700

This happened to me a few weeks back. Had all my stuff on my usb stick, safe enough, right? Nope. Me and my friend went off to get stuff printed in some store, she forgot her cd, so being the good friend that I am, lone her the usb. Later on, plug in USB....NOTHING! Couldn't see a sodden file. I completely broke down in the middle of the computer room at uni...all my notes, 86k novel and plans were GONE! I ran in a panic to the computer shop, and it turned out the files were made invisible, they said they would try and fix it. But come on! This is my life, I'm not leaving it in the hands of a complete stranger. So I brought it home, feeling the crappiest I've ever felt and ready to have a funeral for all the hard work I've done. I got home, plonked myself down at the table and did a long google search, swearing to myself that I wasn't moving till I got everything back. Downloaded a few softwares, scanned the USB and VOILA, I got everything back. The happiest moment ever! It was a lesson I will never repeat. Going to guard that stick with my life and back it up on another CD, my laptop, netbook and a portable external hard drive whenever I do a good chunk of writing. It taught me a good lesson.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Angryman — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:33:41 -0700

Actually, that reminds me of my first year in college. I had a writing class (and not the fun creative writing kind), and I hadn't had time to work on my last essay. I worked on it at my grandmother's that day, and barely finished it in time. I made it up to the college and told my teacher that I had it on my USB and asked if I could go and print it. He said fine, but when I got to the library to do so, I discovered that I couldn't pull it up. I didn't have Word on my laptop back then, and the school's computers, for some stupid reason, did not have Notepad on them. I couldn't print off my essay, and ended up failing that class because of it. It still makes me angry.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Lacey Fay — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 06:09:59 -0700

I had my computer (old laptop) crash in December. My luck? I'd backed it up on a USB about a week ago when my power cord started failing (I'm paranoid, but I thought it was a good idea, just in case), but I'd still lost a good bit of stuff. About... 20K words in total, in the combination of short stories and chapters for a novel. Thankfully, I didn't lose my actual novel, I did, however, lose my entire culminating activity for school. No one believed me that it was done, it was due the next day, and I didn't have time to fix it because I had no access to a computer for long enough to even THINK about getting it done. Because of that, I failed the class, failed another class due to a major anxiety attack I had during the exam BECAUSE of that assignment, and got kicked out of my high school. So yeah, I feel for ya.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Angryman — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:13:21 -0700

That's bull. Bad stuff happens, but no one accepts it.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Lacey Fay — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 05:46:15 -0700

Yep. Now I get to try and get a diploma without a high school! To the education centres!

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Arya Svit-Kona — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 06:08:54 -0700

That happened to me right at the beginning of last years NaNo, which prompted me to start writing EVERYTHING in google docs so it would be auto-saved. Luckily, nearly everything except for homework (which I didn't exactly mind) had been put somewhere on the internet.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

skai413 — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:43:16 -0700

Agh! My dad does the same thing to me, only with email. Delete, empty trash folder, then "did you still need those emails" That's why I no longer have my work (jobs, school, etc) registered to his email address. And why I no longer do any of that work on his computer, except when the network decides to act up (like when I'd do tests on BlackBoard on his computer, since it's wired directly for internet, but did all of my other homework on my wireless). I'd even gone and copied all of my work files (resume, etc) to my computer and deleted it from his, so I have one more reason I "need" to be on mine. And yet he thinks I have to use his computer for work so he can supervise me, because he thinks I must be playing around if I'm using my computer. Of course, he thinks I'm just playing around if I'm doing anything other than what he tells me to do, even if I'm doing homework, or looking for jobs in my field. Even if he knows I'm doing homework or looking for jobs. Next step, figure out if I can set up my monstrosity of a computer in my room. I even know where I want to put it...if it will fit.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

Luna Mooni — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 17:16:02 -0700

I am REALLY paranoid when it comes to my novels. I have my stuff backed up on two different flashdrives, the laptop, and the desktop. My dad wants me to save my novels to his external hardrive, but I won't because I can't keep track of it 24/7, like my panda flashdrive Once I plugged in my flashdrive, and the thing said some of it was corrupts and I couldn't access anything on it. I was almost reduced to tears. But after plugging it in a few times, it seemed to fixed itself. Scared me to death...

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

S.E. Marshall — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:27:46 -0700

Something like that happened to me once too. It was on my iPhone though. I always write out my story ideas on this notebook app I have and my dad's computer system crashed and the app was synchronized with one of my email addresses so I lost everything because of it! I couldn't remember any of the ideas because naturally nothing passes through my mind twice...except this one about an underground salt museum but that was because I went to an underground salt museum when I got the idea and it was a family vacation...one of my favorites...but that's besides the point. I won't ever get those back and it really perturbed me... Plus I'm risking it again by using the same app to put more ideas onto.

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

thrilleraddict — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:06:56 -0700

This happened to me before. I had a few " novels " ( more like some were unfinished story ideas, but still ) and I think my computer had somehow contracted trojans. It did crash, and nothing we've done will make it do anything. ( always gets a BSOD ) Lately my newest laptop has dumped physical memory, twice, so I sent two of my novels to my email until I get a thumb drive to back EVERYTHING up. This is a bit off topic, but I got something a few days ago from Microsoft Security or something like that, saying I have these three things on my computer. ( Basically some viruses ) What ticks me off is that McAfee won't find it! >_< My Internet has been a bit slower when opening new tabs, the mousepad has been freezing up, it's driving me nuts that McAfee won't find the viruses. ( which it actually said I have a Trojan, HackTool, and Adware on my computer. )

Re: A Writer's worst Nightmare

thrilleraddict — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:11:50 -0700

It seems like I never have luck with computers, seriously. It seems funny occasionally, but 3 of them had crashed, one only not letting me back on.