Lately I have been seeing a lot of posts on blogs and on Facebook where authors have worked hard on their works in progresses and the unthinkable happened. Their computers crashed. I figured I would put this out there seeing how I went through the same thing about a year or so ago.
I was about 60,000 words into Silenced when I got the blue screen of death. I panicked. The desktop was the only computer we had and all of my documents, pictures, etc... was gone. Yep, no way to get them back. Not sure how it happened but when my computer crashed, my hard drive was wiped clean.
Not only did I loose my daughter's third Christmas pictures among others, I lost all my work on Silenced. I was at a loss on what to do. My computer guy couldn't get any of the items I wanted the most back.
Since then I have found several ways to back up my work. As an author that totally supports all other writers out there, I want to remind you to back up your work. You won't regret it if the unthinkable happens.
I went out and bought thumb drives. Once I crawled out from under my bed and put my big girl panties on, I started over again. Each time I saved, I made sure to save the document on each thumb drive. I keep them every where. I have them in my car, purse, and various places. (I'm even thinking of if there ever was a fire in my home... my work is backed up in other places).
Please do yourself the favor and back up your work. I wanted to throw that out there and send a reminder to those who haven't done this yet.
6 comments:
I went through the same exact thing. Lost half a novel. It was a nightmare. I use the thumb drives too. It's a great tactic.
NOT THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!
There are also places online that you can store your work just in case.
Ouch, ouch, ouch.
I can't imagine losing that much work; I don't think I would be able to get it back, I would just start something else.
A USB thumb drive is good (I use one) but remember that they can get lost, damaged or corrupted as well. A power surge or a virus could take out your desktop hard drive and the USB stick at the same time.
Consider using something like Google Docs as well (if you have a Gmail account then you automatically get access to Google Docs).
Couldnt agree more, something happened to me and I lost a massive section of work never to be seen again!
Great advice. You might also consider on-line storage such as Dropbox. I upload everything valuable there, as sticks can get lost/damaged/corrupted.
For me, computer crashes and glitches are not really unthinkable. Hard drive failure, blue screen, spilled drinks, etc. there are many ways a computer could fail. So, if you know you’re keeping a lot of important files in it, be sure to back them up so you won’t lose it permanently. Ruby @ WilliamsDataManagement.com
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