Over Christmas I took my trusty Sony Vio laptop to Liverpool with me. Much of my time in Liverpool was, not surprisingly spent celebrating the festivities with family. I did, however find time to write and, as always saved my creations to my laptop’s hard drive.
On returning to London I powered up my trusty old work horse only for the machine to display an error message saying that Windows had been incorrectly shut down. I tried the usual solutions (start Windows normally and when that failed a system restore) but all to no avail. Eventually I took the laptop to a computer repairer I have used previously only to discover that the hard drive had gone to the great computer heaven in the sky where it is, no doubt now whirring away contentedly with other computer bits and bobs!
Fortunately the above story has a happy ending. Although the hard disk had died Graham (the computer repairer) was able to fit a new one and transfer my files from the defunct drive to it. Had he not been able to do this I would, potentially have lost much of my work. Hours of hard slog down the drain!
I had no warning that my hard drive was about to fail. Apparently they can fail soon after a machine has been purchased for no apparent reason, while others can work for years without a hitch. I have owned the laptop since 2011 so had, I guess enjoyed a fairly good run for my money as regards the hard disk.
The moral of the above is to always back up one’s work to somewhere other than one’s computer’s hard drive! Happy backing up!
Kevin
So glad this had a happy ending. I lost some work when this happened to me last year. Now I have turned into a backup queen.
Thank you for your comment. Sorry you lost work and I hope you never have this happen to you again. Best. Kevin
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
AUTHORS – BACK UP YOUR WIP’S
BLOGGERS – BACK UP YOUR BLOGS
EVERYONE – BACK UP YOUR DATA
Many thanks for re-blogging my post Chris. Kevin
I have a stick a flash drive that I save my MS on. I still fear the box in the air, or the sky fluff one,. Like grandmothers that think you will become radioactive if you have a mobile phone, or a microwave within the walls of your home; . I don’t trust them because I am not convinced of the privacy. Having read news and heard reports of manuscript theft and even worse *trembles* identity theft; I mean if it can steal a whole person. .. *gulp*
Thank you for your comment. You are wise to save your work on a flash drive. Your comment about microwaves etc made me smile. I remember once sitting in a pub and overhearing a conversation. One gentleman said words to the effect that he didn’t use computers as “they steal your identity”! On that basis perhaps I had better cease using my laptop forthwith! Kevin
Yes great, I am always listening with pen in hand.A friend of mine unplugs her wifi at night… in case it sends waves into your head when you sleep? I could write a book. “Oh! I am doing”
If you write that book do let me know and I shall certainly read it!
Second draft underway. X
This is my BIGGEST FEAR! So glad you didn’t lose anything though!
I’ve just started my own blog too. It’s all about books and a chance for us all to read together, take a look at https://darrensharpewrites.wordpress.com and follow if you find it interesting! Many MANY more to come.
Thank you for your comment. I will be sure to check out your blog. Good luck in the blogging community. Best wishes. Kevin
Thank you! Enjoying the blogosphere so far, it’s great craic!
Glad you are enjoying it. I am now following your blog. Best. Kevin
Thanks Kevin! You too! 🙂
Whew. Glad of your happy ending. I agree. Backup, backup, backup.
Long ago, I’d save some work to a hard disk, you remember those small square ones of the 90s? I thought I was smart. I didn’t save it on my laptop. Dropped the disk and damaged it. Couldn’t get back hours of work. The computer geeks are much more capable these days. 😀
Thanks for your comment Tess. Sorry you lost your work. Yes I remember those external hard drives. So many people now are using cloud services such as Dropbox which are, I guess better in that you can not drop them! Kevin
Indeed. I do use what available in internet world. I signed up for Dropbox, which used to be free for far more than they offer now. I threw in some pictures and filled up my quote of space. Now if I want to continue with them, I have to pay. The pictures will be coming down and documents will be going in. More important and take up less space.
Sharing on Twitter! Crashes have happened to me too. When working on a novel I also send a copy of the latest version to myself (attached WordDoc) everytime I work on the ms. So glad you managed to get everything back, but we all need to be reminded of the importance of back up. Thanks for the reminder. Have a great week. 🙂
Thanks for sharing on Twitter. That is a great idea, to send a copy of your manuscript to yourself via email. I have been doing that and intend to subscribe to a cloud back up service for good measure. Kind regards. Kevin
I agree. You never know when the hard drive will fail. I backup to my flash drives constantly. It would be time consuming to keep retyping edits in if I ever lost them. Too much work involved and you never get the same results. Occasionally I have lost some edits and had to redo them and the second time around they were better, but I was lucky! Lol!
Thanks for sharing! 😀
Many thanks for your comment. You are very wise to back up to a flash drive and I am glad that on the few occasions you had to redo edits, they where better than the first time around! Best wishes. Kevin
Reblogged this on Kate McClelland.