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Post by annnoe on Feb 3, 2015 6:40:37 GMT
Yes, Stevians, back up that manuscript! ...and do it every time you add or edit. Don't rely on any part of the "ether world" to do it for you. Just today, my DH was transcribing my hand written manuscript pages to my novel file like he does nearly every day. Today when he hit the button to save, every last word in the manuscript disappeared! Every single word. Okay, Carbonite to the rescue, right? I went to retrieve the Carbonite version from yesterday. No problem, right? Turns out Carbonite was backing up my files as I was frantically trying to restore. Guess what? Carbonite dutifully backed up the empty file. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhh! Thank goodness I had saved the file I used to verify my NaNoWriMo word count. So I was able to retrieve that. But, every word written from December and January will have to be retyped. At least I have a hand written copy. If I composed on the computer, it would all have been lost forever. So now I am backing up after every session to a removable drive (maybe I'll do two backups - can't be two careful). I don't offer advice very often, but I'm offering this: BACK IT UP! NOW! BEFORE IT'S NEVER!
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Post by Siana Blackwood on Feb 3, 2015 7:37:01 GMT
I guess you're on a Mac, then? A quick Google says that Carbonite for Windows stores versions for something like 30 days.
Good advice, though. Back up to multiple locations, often.
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Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Feb 3, 2015 14:41:39 GMT
A great reminder, annnoe.
Dropbox is also good for backups. Even the free version maintains previous versions of a file. Emailing words to yourself every few days is another good way to maintain alternate worst case backups.
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Post by annnoe on Feb 3, 2015 15:59:48 GMT
Thanks to both of you for the additional hints. I'm on a PC, but my version of Carbonite only showed the most current back up. Haven't gotten the system back up operating yet. I'll check out the other options. In the mean time - two sticks in two different locations.
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Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Feb 3, 2015 18:12:32 GMT
So if you're on Windows and you get lucky, sometimes the OS itself has a backup. Have you tried right clicking and then selecting Restore Previous Versions?
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Post by annnoe on Feb 4, 2015 0:04:14 GMT
So if you're on Windows and you get lucky, sometimes the OS itself has a backup. Have you tried right clicking and then selecting Restore Previous Versions? Apparently, that's not working, either. BTW, I had forgotten: Mercury is in Retrograde until Feb 11th.
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Post by eileenk98 on Feb 6, 2015 19:23:31 GMT
I've had problems losing files. I lost a good portion of my 2013 NaNo when somehow the file was overwritten with another file. I restored a previous version, but it's missing a big chunk towards the end. Oh well.
In 2006, I almost lost my entire NaNo file when I couldn't open the floppy (yes, I was still using floppies. In fact, this was the last year I backed up on a floppy. Never again!), but fortunately, a friend in my writing group was able to recover it for me. Since then, I've backed up on two flash drives: one for my separate writing folder, the other for the entire Documents folder on the computer. I also keep all my WriMos in Dropbox.
There are horror stories on the NaNo site about work lost by accident and never recovered. Hope all goes well for you, going forward.
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Post by annnoe on Feb 7, 2015 16:58:28 GMT
I've had problems losing files. I lost a good portion of my 2013 NaNo when somehow the file was overwritten with another file. I restored a previous version, but it's missing a big chunk towards the end. Oh well. In 2006, I almost lost my entire NaNo file when I couldn't open the floppy (yes, I was still using floppies. In fact, this was the last year I backed up on a floppy. Never again!), but fortunately, a friend in my writing group was able to recover it for me. Since then, I've backed up on two flash drives: one for my separate writing folder, the other for the entire Documents folder on the computer. I also keep all my WriMos in Dropbox. There are horror stories on the NaNo site about work lost by accident and never recovered. Hope all goes well for you, going forward. Yep, NaNo is a really good place to hear horror stories of lost manuscripts. I think about the 10th day in, Chris Baty has a back up your manuscript day. Wanna bet it's happened to him, too? The documents backup sounds like a great idea. I hadn't thought about what else I could lose to some cyber fluke. I managed to recover the file I uploaded for NaNo verification. It was only short about the last 10 chapters. DH is retyping them a little at a time. Should be all caught up by the end of the month. Hope your writing is going well.
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Post by Siana Blackwood on Apr 30, 2015 13:05:20 GMT
Just a friendly end-of-the-month reminder:
DON'T FORGET TO BACK UP YOUR WORK!!!
Make sure you have:
1. Online backups: Dropbox or a similar file syncing thing, email yourself, store a zipped archive somewhere...
2. Offline backups: flash drive, portable hard drive, another computer, your phone's memory card
Make sure you have more than one of each. Also, don't forget to back up other things. If your computer breaks down, it's not just your writing that disappears.
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Post by Siana Blackwood on Jun 20, 2015 3:32:37 GMT
Just digging this thread up again, because backups never go out of style.
Everyone back up your work. Losing work is a horrible experience. Even having a little panic moment where you realise you could have lost work is a feeling I could happily do without. If there's one extra thing you can do as part of your day's writing that gives you a bit more security, do it.
Also, really look at your needs when you're backing up. At the moment I'm in a situation where if my main writing computer dies, I won't have a replacement that could access my online backups. I need up-to-date versions of my files on an external drive so I can keep writing even if I don't have an internet connection.
Things to bear in mind:
* If you have a 'spare' computer that's an older machine, you may not be able to access Google Drive.
* Anything that syncs files (e.g. Dropbox, Carbonite) has a chance of causing further problems if they're uploading during a crash.
* External drives may not be compatible. I have an old laptop that works perfectly in all respects except one - it only has USB 1.1 ports. I doubt 13-year-old laptops are all that common, but be aware that there's a possibility of the same kind of thing with USB 2 and 3.
* Particularly for Windows users, find out whether there's a 'portable' version of your usual writing software and if so, load it onto an external drive. That way if you're on someone else's computer you can still use a familiar program to write.
* If you use something like Yarny or Google Docs to write, remember that you still need backups, both online and local.
Remember, the question is always, "How much would you be okay with losing?"
...and the answer could well be that you're not okay with losing anything.
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