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The Worst Thing Today

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Mon December 1st, 2008, 10:17 pm

Our whole lives are on our computers, both work and leisure. So the dh also installed a backup system, one he got at Fry's electronics for under $100. In fact he has two -- one in the house, and one in his office, a building out back. In case we have a fire (we remember the place burning in '84 quite well, and we are too suburban here to worry about a general wildfire.)

There is an automatic backup program which records everything in every computer (excepting laptops) to both drives at 3 AM every day.

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michellemoran
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Post by michellemoran » Mon December 1st, 2008, 11:41 pm

Yes LCW - my whole life is on my computer as well. I've backed up as much as possible in hotmail and on junk drives, but it's never enough. I will look into your suggestion, Carla, re Acronis. And the external hard drive is definitely looking like the way to go.
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cw gortner
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Location: San Francisco,CA
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Post by cw gortner » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 5:45 am

My heart goes out to you, Mich. I had a computer literally crash in the middle of writing a book, The Secret Lion, in fact, and I never recovered anything. It just went black and died. I had most of the ms. printed out, so I had to re-type 200 pages. Total nightmare. By the time I was done it took me weeks to get reinspired to finish the darn thing.

I now rely on an external hard-drive that has an automatic backup software that you can program. It can be bought at most BestBuy stores for about $100. There are many on the market; I recommend the heavy-duty ones. Every Friday at 11:00 pm, it kicks in and drags all my files onto it so if the computer becomes possessed or otherwise misbehaves, my docs are safe. It doesn't back up programs, though. I keep the discs of whatever I use so I can always reinstall. I insist when I buy a new computer - which I did this year (I use a laptop and plug in a large flat-screen monitor) - that they give me the system backup discs. Since few new computers these days come with anything but the minimum, I bought the software I needed on my own. I actually prefer as few programs as possible because when my last computer died it killed every bit of software on it and I had no discs to do a reinstall with.

And because I'm now super-paranoid, I do a second backup on memory sticks, which I leave at my office lest the house tumbles in a quake :) I also carry an extra fully loaded memory stick with me in my messenger bag. The downside is keeping track of the most recent files, i.e., backing up whatever you last worked on via separate mechanisms. I've more than once messed that up and had to go searching through my sticks and external drive for the most recent file. But if it's your opus, well worth it.

Hugs. Get lots of them. I loathe computer issues. They drive me nuts.
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LCW
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Joined: August 2008
Location: Southern California

Post by LCW » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 6:19 am

Sorry to hear about your computer, Michelle! That must be awful!!

Well, it seems I've come down with a cold!! I can't even remember the last time I had one. I started feeling bad on Sat. when we had a second Thanksgiving dinner with some of my family. I though it would pass as most of the time I start feeling run down my body is able to fight it off but not this time!! I have chronic mono but have managed to keep my episodes down to once or twice a year with diet and a healthy lifestyle but other than that I rarely get sick. I forgot how awful it is to have a stuffy stuffed up head and nose! Yuck! Oh well! I just gotta ride it out, I guess!!
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them. --Arnold Lobel

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Carine
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Posts: 675
Joined: September 2008
Currently reading: Jonkvrouw - Jean-Claude Van Ryckeghem
Interest in HF: I love history
Favourite HF book: Can't pin that down to only 1 :-)
Preferred HF: Medieval, Tudor and Ancient Egyptian
Location: Ghent, Belgium
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Post by Carine » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 6:49 am

So sorry to hear about your computer troubles Michelle !
In the office where I work they have Backup24, which doesn't cost too much I believe but we also have copies of everything on an external hard disk, which is still the safest thing to do I think.
Hope you get everything back to normal soon !

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Julianne Douglas
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Location: Northern California

Post by Julianne Douglas » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 6:53 am

Michelle, so sorry to hear about the crash, right before an impending deadline! I use flash drives and am supposed to transfer the files from my laptop to our desktop as a backup. I'm thinkin' maybe I need to go do that...

Were you able to recover your files? You don't sound too panicked, so I hope you didn't lose any work. Hang in there!
Julianne Douglas

Writing the Renaissance

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SonjaMarie
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Post by SonjaMarie » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 6:55 am

I always upload important files to eskimo.com files account and also onto discs.

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Alaric
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Post by Alaric » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 7:45 am

A friend of mine from university is going back home to Germany in about ten days time, so I planned to go around to their apartment after work today. I decided to walk as it's not that far, but it becomes a bit too far when you walk 4km on a warmish day only for them to not be home. Then I had to walk all the way back to get the bus home. I'm buggered!

[quote=""michellemoran""]A great idea EC. I think I'm going to go with that plan, and I can always put it in a bank somewhere in case the house burns to a crisp in one of our annual CA wildfires.[/quote]

I've got one too, mine holds a 1terrabyte worth of files. You can get them fairly cheaply these days - I only paid A$180 for mine, which is US$116. Definitely worth the go. :)

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Divia
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Location: Always Cloudy, Central New York

Post by Divia » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 12:14 pm

Ick Michelle that totally sucks. I'm sorry :(
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Ludmilla
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Location: Georgia USA

Post by Ludmilla » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 1:59 pm

Yes, that sucks, Michelle. How very frustrating.

I agree with others that an external hard drive is the way to go for backing up a lot of data -- especially since it's data you use to earn a living. The memory sticks are great, too. We use them where I work, and they are quite handy and so very portable (and I don't think they are that expensive). I also sometimes upload files to my google account that I'm working on. That way, if I'm bored at work, I can tinker around with them and have instant access.

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