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A Quick Lesson On the Backing Up Of Things
Sep. 5th, 2016 04:37 pmHappy September, folks!
I haven’t blogged in a little while. That’s mostly on me, being elseweb and not taking the time to review things as quickly as I mean to. It can happen. Also, I had some *ahem* Computer Issues that needed solving. Those of you who have been on the receiving end of my rants, you know what happened. The rest of you: I have a Mac now, and everything is OK again. That is all you need to know.
HOWEVER.
Here’s something that will need addressing one way or another whether you have a decent machine and accompanying software or not: backing up your stuff. Never ever EVER forget to back up your stuff. Rather, don’t go, “Meh, I’ll just do it later,” and then NOT back up your stuff if you get to thinking it’ll just, y’know, be there when you decide you can be bothered to back it up. Don’t do that.
A short list of the stuff I lost in between drop-kicking my old Asus out a window* and acquiring my shiny new Macbook Air:
--> The last chapter of the WiP (“Cave Draconem,” those of you who beta’d for it), about 2000 words and change
--> The first chapter of a new WiP I had just finished typing up from my notebook, more than 2000 words (but the notebook survived)
--> At least a dozen unfinished blog posts
--> Four chapters worth of in-progress fanfiction
--> Screen captures from the following movies: Captain America: The First Avenger, The Witch, Crimson Peak, Twixt, and possibly more that I just haven’t remembered yet
--> ALL of the wallpapers, icons, and other graphix I hadn’t uploaded anywhere yet
*I did not actually do this. The Asus is still in my briefcase wondering what it did wrong. Bless its heart.
My backup system consists of: a handful of flash drives that I really ought to organize better than I do (one’s mainly for work, the blogs I write for the library, but that’s the only “organization” I have on there); projects consisting of multiple parts (inspiration photos, playlists, query letter, synopses & sample chapters in addition to the actual full-length manuscript) which I export as ZIP files and email to myself and/or my beta reader(s); printed versions of whatever manuscript I’m submitting at the time, the most recent version, depending on whether I have the budget for that sort of thing when I start sending it.
It’s an imperfect system, as most of them are. But it’s what I’m used to and it works well enough most of the time.
TL;DR - back up your stuff. As often and in as many ways as possible.
I haven’t blogged in a little while. That’s mostly on me, being elseweb and not taking the time to review things as quickly as I mean to. It can happen. Also, I had some *ahem* Computer Issues that needed solving. Those of you who have been on the receiving end of my rants, you know what happened. The rest of you: I have a Mac now, and everything is OK again. That is all you need to know.
HOWEVER.
Here’s something that will need addressing one way or another whether you have a decent machine and accompanying software or not: backing up your stuff. Never ever EVER forget to back up your stuff. Rather, don’t go, “Meh, I’ll just do it later,” and then NOT back up your stuff if you get to thinking it’ll just, y’know, be there when you decide you can be bothered to back it up. Don’t do that.
A short list of the stuff I lost in between drop-kicking my old Asus out a window* and acquiring my shiny new Macbook Air:
--> The last chapter of the WiP (“Cave Draconem,” those of you who beta’d for it), about 2000 words and change
--> The first chapter of a new WiP I had just finished typing up from my notebook, more than 2000 words (but the notebook survived)
--> At least a dozen unfinished blog posts
--> Four chapters worth of in-progress fanfiction
--> Screen captures from the following movies: Captain America: The First Avenger, The Witch, Crimson Peak, Twixt, and possibly more that I just haven’t remembered yet
--> ALL of the wallpapers, icons, and other graphix I hadn’t uploaded anywhere yet
*I did not actually do this. The Asus is still in my briefcase wondering what it did wrong. Bless its heart.
My backup system consists of: a handful of flash drives that I really ought to organize better than I do (one’s mainly for work, the blogs I write for the library, but that’s the only “organization” I have on there); projects consisting of multiple parts (inspiration photos, playlists, query letter, synopses & sample chapters in addition to the actual full-length manuscript) which I export as ZIP files and email to myself and/or my beta reader(s); printed versions of whatever manuscript I’m submitting at the time, the most recent version, depending on whether I have the budget for that sort of thing when I start sending it.
It’s an imperfect system, as most of them are. But it’s what I’m used to and it works well enough most of the time.
TL;DR - back up your stuff. As often and in as many ways as possible.