BACK UP YOUR WORK, a lament {UPDATED}

Come all my dear computer lovers

And take a warning how you work

If you don’t save your efforts elsewhere

It will be there, and then it’s gone.

I wish I’d known before I’d lost it

Time I had left, my files to move

For when it died, without a warning

It left me here in grief to moan.

Inspired by Jim Moray’s “Fair and Tender Lovers.”

On Valentine’s Day, I opened my laptop, signed in, the screen was on for a few seconds, and no sooner had I plugged in my headphones, it completely turned off. No blue screen, no pop up error warnings, just black. With a whirr of the dying fan it gave up the ghost, and couldn’t be revived.

I’m actually surprised I’m not as freaked out as I would expect. I can’t access my programs, my work files, and even though I’d been backing up my writing in Scrivener to the cloud, much to my embarrassment, I hadn’t backed up all my newest changes. I should know better by now. (See photo at the beginning of the post.) So I definitely have reason enough to be nervous, even panicky, but I’m not. Small blessings!

Thankfully, because it didn’t even blue screen before it shut off (it’s done that in the past, but didn’t die), Wervyn says there’s still a chance that the hard drive isn’t completely dead. It seems more likely that something else went kaput (like the part that receives power), which means my files are hopefully safe. I’ll let you know how that works out, and what we were able to save. Hopefully everything.

{UPDATE 3/13/15} Everything on the hard drive was saved! Huzzah! What a relief! Huge blessing!{/UPDATE}

I’m frustrated to see it go, of course, especially so suddenly when I was right in the middle of a bunch of work projects. Heck, there’s never a good time to lose a computer. I’ve never had a computer fail to the point of being unusable (they just fade into obsolescence), but I know so many people who have over the years. We’ve all gotten used to the scramble of trying to rescue files from a dropped external hard drive or cleaning off a computer we have to return to our office, but it’s never fun. This really encourages me, more than ever before, to really surf the web smarter to avoid getting malware, and figure out an automatic back-up system of some kind that will actually work, because I’m tired of worrying about losing my files.

A new laptop is on the way, but until then, no Scrivener. Thankfully I can use Wervyn’s old computer, and one of my really old laptops that hasn’t died on me. I guess that means I’ll have to get all my other work done that I’ve been meaning to do.  😉

Needless to say, consider this a writing hiatus til I get everything transferred to my new laptop. Thankfully, most of what I’d written in Scrivener that wasn’t saved was relatively simple edits. That, or copied templates for background development, mostly consisting of transferring information from other backed-up files.

Once I know the state of my files, and install Scrivener on my new machine, I’ll see what I can get done without having to re-haul my writing/editing plans too much. I’m already behind because of my nasty cold, but I’ll just have to wait and see.

{UPDATE 3/13/15} Due to unforseen circumstances, I have redoubled my efforts in The Search for More Money and put writing and editing on the back burner for now. But I love my new laptop! It’s a touchscreen! Even though I was insanely fortunate to not have hard drive failure, and found a good laptop for a good price (thanks to newegg.com), I’m still trying to figure out a good way to keep all my work files backed up, which is what got me into trouble in the first place. Any suggestions are appreciated! Leave me a comment or something. {/UPDATE}

Moral of the story, kids,

BACK IT UP, BACK IT UP, BACK IT UP, BACK IT UP……cuz Christina taught ya good. And she had to learn it the hard way.