After reading the title of this blog, there are probably some of you humming an old school rap song by Juvenile. Though that's by design, I can't quote the lyrics, at least not without paying for the rights which we all know I'm not going to do for this blog. We can also see I'm getting off topic before getting on, but the title is quite fitting.
Not too long ago, I shared with you a tale of woe in which a virus infected one of my manuscript files. Given that the novel was almost completed, it was devastating to lose so much of it. Even worse was knowing the disaster could've been averted if I'd just backed up my files on a regular basis. It took that loss for me to stop being so lazy and stop thinking it wouldn't happen to me and to start doing what every responsible writer should and back my files up.
Since that horrible day last year, I not only have my computer set to auto save every few minutes, but I do a weekly back up of all of my files. Okay, my husband does the back up, but I make sure it gets done. Despite this faithful effort, I haven't needed to take advantage of my back up files, at least not until a few days ago.
After a long, hard day of work at my day job, I came home and powered up my computer. I was all set to settle in for satisfying night of editing. I chose the file I was currently working on and immediately received a familiar error message. I knew all too well something corrupted my file. Reflecting on it now, I'm pretty sure I know what caused the corruption, but I won't get into it now.
Unlike the last time I couldn't open one of my files, I barely registered a reaction. That's not to say I wasn't irriated, but I sure wasn't the weeping, wailing mess I was last year. There was no need for me to panic, not when I had a back up on another computer. In less than five minutes, my computer whiz of a husband deleted my old file and replaced the new one. Being that I only back up once a week, there were some prior edits that weren't saved on the replacement draft, but it wasn't anything I couldn't give a quick fix.
I was much happier having to replace only a few pages of my work as opposed to a few hundred. Moral of the story? Back your files up! And if you don't know the Juvenile song I'm speaking of, you can likely find it on You Tube.
I have to agree with what you wrote, and a system crash that results to data loss is always unfortunate. Replacing a few pages rather than a hundred is the better option since a book needs an immense amount of time to be written. Just remember to always back up your files to avoid stressful events like these happening again.
ReplyDeleteRuby Badcoe @ Williams Data Management
This should serve as a reminder of how important creating a back up is. If only you didn't ignore its importance, then you could've saved yourself from such hassle. Computer crash can happen to anyone, anytime, and there's no guarantee about the safety of our files. Do your part in protecting and preserving your important documents.
ReplyDelete-Manda Maldanado @ Scality