BACK UP YOUR WORK.
Right now. I'll wait. Done? Good. Why am I harping on this? On Wednesday, my main computer flashed the blue screen of death. Even technical genius Hotrod couldn't save it. See, my computer decided it no longer wished to recognize my hard drive. You know, the place where all my files are stored? Including the nearly complete first draft of Date With The Devil (all 374 pages). Actually, every book I've ever written is on that hard drive, but only DWTD matters to me at the moment.
Sigh.
I took it to our local computer guys and long story short, they couldn't retrieve the info but they have a lab they can send it to. This lab has a medical grade clean room, where they'll strip the hard drive, put the important bits into another hard drive and save off the info. They're 98% sure the lab will be able to get all my files.
Cost of this process? Are you sitting down? $600 to $2000. I'll wait while your heart rate slows to normal. Dear, sweet Hotrod didn't blink an eye. Well, he might have blinked once. Regardless, he knows I need these files back.
I guess this means I won't be buying any new shoes for a long time.
Sigh.
The real kicker is, I know I'm supposed to be backing up my stuff to disk or flash drive or emailing my self copies. So I could have prevented this, but my laziness won. This is the most expensive lesson I've learned so far in my life. Don't make the same mistake, okay? BACK UP YOUR WORK.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Listen Up
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(((Kristen)))
ReplyDeleteMy husband cleaning the toilet for me? This is that, on a whole nuther level. Their support means so much, and the way they show it is amazing.
ReplyDeleteGive the man a hug for me.
I'm going to back it up now.
ReplyDeleteI hope they can get your work back. I lost all of my work almost two years ago. I recovered some of it because it was on another computer but I lost some work I will never be able to replace.
Hugs. You know that I pre-warned you about cost so hopefully that helped. Sigh. Hope you get it done cheaply!
ReplyDeleteOh man. I'm so, so sorry. I have my fingers crossed that they can get your info back.
ReplyDeleteMy gosh what a nightmare!
ReplyDeleteI hope all your files are retreived safe and sound. We had a few near misses so we bought an external hard drive, which is programmed to back up our regular hard drive every other night. So far so good. But you can never be too careful. Good luck!
Yeah, good luck. I still have a hard drive that kakked sitting at home waiting for me to find an extra grand or so to recover the files. And I am, or at least used to be, a computer geek myself. Some lessons are hard ones to learn.
ReplyDeleteHoly smoke!!!!!!!!!!!!! (((hugs))))
ReplyDeleteOh Kristen, that sucks! I backed up my books to the flash drive right after I saw your message at Divas, but now I'm thinking I'll burn a disk, too. And email a copy of everything to my CP.
ReplyDeleteMore hugs!
I lost 5k on my old dinosaur before I bought this new one-it freaked me out enough that I just plug in my flash drive every day and make sure everything is saved at night. I feel so bad Kristen! I hope you can get it back!
ReplyDeleteOh, man. I feel your pain. I'm so sorry that happened.
ReplyDeleteThe computer demons must be busy right now. My computer crashed last Sunday. I took it to the shop, and after having it a week they told me they couldn't fix the problem and now have to send it out for service. I'm looking at at least two weeks without my computer. Like you, I'm horrible about backing up files. Luckily, I saved the wip on my zip and I've sent enough of my other files to CPs so I was able to track most of them down. The only thing I think I'm missing is my last book with the revisions my agent and I went over. If worse comes to worse, I'm hoping she has it saved somewhere.
I really hope you're able to retrieve your file. I have a pit in the bottom of my stomach for you.
That's horrible. You have my deepest sympathy and I'm keeping my fingers crossed they can recover your data. Like hulles commented - I still have a hard drive waiting, but mine is waiting for a miracle not money.
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
{{{HUGS}}} Kristen!!! I didn't see a boot mark so you must have handled the loss with finesse. I now have one of those flash drives after losing a couple of chapters. I hope you hear good news soon that your work has been recovered. :)
ReplyDeleteHugs, Nancy