Last night while I was working on some editing, my little kid knocked over some potpourri onto my laptop.
I froze. My husband girlie screamed. The kid backed into a corner, one hand over her mouth, her eyes wide.
After drying it off, there are some little shooting star ghosts on the screen, but it's none the worse for wear. I was a little nervous, but even if my computer were utterly fried, it wouldn't have been that big a deal. I've got a box to which I back up my computer semi-regularly.
What would you go if YOUR computer had an accident? Sure, you'd lose your novel, but what else would you lose? Important homework? Precious photos? Your address book?
You can get thumb drives for practically nothing. There are online places like Google where you can store documents. Find a place, and back your important stuff up often! You won't be sorry.
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Junglemonkey
Santa Cruz Co-ML
Nanowrimo Winner '03, '04, '05, '06, '07, '08
Future Winner 2009
Wearer of the Eyebrow Dots of Power
32,309 / 50,000
Oct 26, 2009 - 20 46
I ended up setting open office to autosave every two minutes. mostly for school essays, because those are the ones I usually end up loosing, but I'm sure vista will try to assassinate my novel too at some point. sigh. :<
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lets all go out on our lawns and yell obscenities at passersby.
VOOOOOOOI!
30,000 / 50,000
Oct 26, 2009 - 21 19
You all may have noticed that even Chris Baty is not immune from computer meltdowns, so let's take it seriously. I'm in weird position with my own computer right now, it's a bit subpar, but I'm thinking of opening an account with Lockbox--any alternative endorsements?
52,486 / 50,000
Oct 27, 2009 - 08 38
Now that I've met you, every time I read your sig line it makes me giggle a little. I totally want to go out on the lawn with you and yell obscenities at passersby! (Mostly "Rub my elbow!")
----------Junglemonkey
Santa Cruz Co-ML
Nanowrimo Winner '03, '04, '05, '06, '07, '08
Future Winner 2009
Wearer of the Eyebrow Dots of Power
8,711 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 21 13
my 2 cents:
if you're a mac user, the newer OS' come with "Time Machine," and i have it set to back-up to my 500gig (only $115 a year ago on amazon.com) Lacie external hard drive. it automatically updates about 220+gigs of information so there's a mirror image copy *by day*...depending on how often you back up....so stuff can be retrieved from any given point in time. and i don't even notice when it's backing up! no freezing, no waiting, no spinning rainbow wheel of death.
i am also a huge fan of the "apple-S" (the "save" shortcut on a mac)....it's like an insidious habit.
24,540 / 50,000
Oct 30, 2009 - 10 47
I am positively paranoid about losing my work. So I control S every few sentences. I then e-mail myself the document so that I have it both in the inbox and sent box. I use the e-mail to update the file on the computer I wasn't using when I wrote last...my office computer or my laptop. And every few days I save a copy on a usb drive. I also upload to The Next Big Writer site sometimes. Yeah so luckily I haven't lost anything lately. And since my work computer crashed a few weeks ago I'm more paranoid about doing backups.
----------~*~Jenn~*~
13,139 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 09 04
At least once a day I firewire changed files from my iMac to my MacBook and vice versa. It's saved my patooie more than once. Like when the MacBook wouldn't even get past the grey screen and I had to replace the hard drive. (Thank all the gods and goddesses for AppleCare.)
I write with Scrivener, set to save every 2 seconds. I love that it opens to where I left off, but can be annoying if that "perfect phrase" got deleted.
I'd set up Time Machine but $$ are kinda short to get that backup drive.
----------Camarec - Fantasy is the only truth.