Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

This is everyone's worst nightmare. You're halfway through your 100,000 word novel, and your computer crashes and takes your book with it. Here is a step-by-step plan for getting it back.
http://ellelapraim.com/recover-data-a...

I copy it off the USB stick I saved it on, or download it from gmail from when I mailed it to myself, or recover it from Acronis backup.

While I sympathise with any computer failure, it's not hard in these days of the cloud and cheap storage not to back up. Google mail is the easiest. Just mail the doc to yourself.

Worst thing ever. I learnt my lesson and now back up to many different devices, and yes, email my work to myself.

Dropbox is also a great way to back up - once it's set up, there's no "uploading" or "downloading" to do - everything you do automatically gets backed up to the cloud without you even having to think about it. And it's free (unless you want to store a gigantic amount of stuff).

www.dropbox.com

Antony wrote: "Dropbox is also a great way to back up - once it's set up, there's no "uploading" or "downloading" to do - everything you do automatically gets backed up to the cloud without you even having to thi..."

Yup. I use that as well. It's especially good if you move from desktop to laptop a lot. Also allows you to set up password protected shares with remote people so your editor can see the work as well.

Paul wrote: "Antony wrote: "Dropbox is also a great way to back up - once it's set up, there's no "uploading" or "downloading" to do - everything you do automatically gets backed up to the cloud without you eve..."

Same here - since I now have both desktop and laptop, I moved all my docs to Dropbox, so I can work from either (and print them out at work, accessing them from the website). I still do DVD or external HD back-up every few months, though.

I think I have the books I've written backed up in six places, PC, laptop, phone, USB Stick, external harddrive and in a non-public folder of my blog server.

I really should get around to burning them onto a DVD too :-)

I had a weird experience & was looking for a discussion to post this: New laptop,& I was rewriting chapter 1 of sequel when lines started deleting themselves. A WTF moment. I had to shut down to make it stop. Opened it again, 11 pages were gone. I had backed up recently, so the only part I lost was some of the rewrite. I started over, and what I pulled from memory was even better. I don't recommend this form of self-editing, however.
Any ideas of what was going on? Should I return the laptop?

Each night I'd e-mail my manuscript as a saved document to my office computer. At lunch I'd research and add additional material to the manuscript. I'd then save the manuscript document at the office and e-mail it home to work further at night.

Elle wrote: "This is everyone's worst nightmare. You're halfway through your 100,000 word novel, and your computer crashes and takes your book with it. Here is a step-by-step plan for getting it back.
http://..."

It's a shame you've used a picture of Apple Mac. I've had no problems at all since I junked my PC and bought a MacBook; and that was four years ago... (I do, however, still keep backups!)

You can have always your backups synchroned by dropbox and you will never have the problem losing words. the 2GB account is free! http://db.tt/3GcIpKiq

Gah! Patrick, you got there before me but dropbox actually saved my last book. Twice.

Cheers

MTM

Ginney wrote: "I had a weird experience & was looking for a discussion to post this: New laptop,& I was rewriting chapter 1 of sequel when lines started deleting themselves. A WTF moment. I had to shut down to ma..."

Hey, is yours a Sony laptop? My Sony desktop used to do it too, but now seems to have fixed itself. Maybe because my husband banned food at the computer table! Anyway, what you can do when it starts eating words is to quickly press the space bar and hold it down till it stops. Then Ctrl+Z until you've restored it to where it was, and save. Best of luck with the sequel!

I had a moment tonight when I realised I hadn't kept a Word version of my final final edit before converting to 'Web page, filtered'. How silly did I feel when I realised I just had to right-click and open with Word?!

Hello, everyone.

Just joined this particular group yesterday and already am getting good advice here.

I back up on my memory stick - so when we have tornado warnings, it's one of the things I take into my "safe room" - along with the cat and my pearls. However, what if ...

Another recovery source would be my Beta-reader; I email her several chapters at a time - but again, what if (her computer is stolen, or ... I do trust her, of course).

Now, I will definitely look into other suggestions outlined above.

Inge

I save to my hard drive, external hard drive, and disk. Disks may be obsolete, but I have a lot of them, and they still work, so I use them.

I also have a Dropbox account, although I should probably use it more often than I do.

Using a thumb drive is a good idea, as well. You can never be too paranoid with manuscripts.

I'm a freak. I have my work on my laptop, my old tower, a hard drive, and a USB key. Save every day on the USB from the laptop. The hard drive every week. The tower every six months when my laptop crashes... Oh, and paper. Because I handwrite first, and type after so... Told you. Paranoid. :)

Claude Dancourt

I save each chapter as a separate file, then email each one to myself so I have backups on yahoo.

Lol good idea guys, here's a link to a great blog post that can help out with this problem. Or maybe atleast be prepared before it happenes. http://jadevarden.blogspot.ca/2012/05...

I use Macs. Two iMacs, w/Time Machine assure constant backup...I also use Dropbox--paranoid, but safe.