Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Curse the Writer, She Bleeds.

To misquote Dickens - I am getting over the unfortunate habit of breathing - or rather I'm dying! I got the most crushing news today and am absolutely devastated.

My personal laptop went in for service to a local electronics store. Purchased there only a year ago, I was having trouble with the charger. My husband, J, and I took it in two weeks ago and they said it would have to be sent out. They also recommended that we back up the hard drive. J and I talked about it. We could take the laptop home and ghost the hard drive or hand it over to the store and allow them to back up the hard drive. The back up was expensive, $99 dollars, but we decided it was worth it as J really didn't feel like having to ghost the whole hard drive. Doing this, I understood that I would have to reinstall the programs if anything happened that made the back up necessary. Since it was a power problem, no one really felt the backup was necessary but I am anxious when it comes to my stuff.

Any way, I went to pick it up today and found the most horrific heart break I'd ever received. They replaced the motherboard and reformatted the hard drive. It should have been okay but it wasn't. They only backup my documents folder. They said I never told them there was anything special that needed to be backed up. Of course, they never told me I had to specify what to back up. I thought that was clear. I wanted my hard drive backed up. So, where does this leave me? For 4 years now I have used a program called Book Collectorz.com to manage my large home library, over 800 books worth of information. I had everything from where it was purchased to who had a particular book checked out. It's taken me years to get everything into the program and it's all gone. Yet, as bad as this lose it there is worse. All my writing was in a folder on the desk top. I mean ALL my writing, including a novel I had almost finished. I have been working on this novel for years While I do have some printed backups, I do not have the full piece and am out 15 chapters.

Lesson to writer's everywhere - do your own backups. Don't trust anyone with your most prized possessions. I did get the store to refund me the backup fee and J is going to try and restore what I've lost. I can be hopeful but the damage is done and I am hurting. Losing my writing is a grief I can't describe. It feels as if I've lost a part of me. I tell the kids every day to save often. I follow my own advice all the time. I should have backed up my own work. I should have insisted the tech right out my directions. I should have done much but can only start all over now.

Once upon a time. . .

4 comments:

Ann Marie Simard said...

Hi there! Tell me about it! I just lost an entire novel and now my "backup people" are either lost themselves, lost for words, or whatever. I have to launch a worldwide quest of Raw Sugar. Grrr. I can relate so well. Backup your backups!!! I like your blog, btw, and will be back, if I may.

Ann Marie

~Liz said...

call it parinoia but I keep back ups of all my important documents in three seperate locations. I keep a back up disk at home, at work and at my mother's house. Just in case I lose my hard drive or lose one of the back ups.
I definately understand sweetie.
And why didnt you tell me or share with me your latest endevour. I'm crushed.

landismom said...

Oh, that is so heartbreaking. I hope you are able to salvage your work in some way.

Steve Hayes said...

That is a sad story.

I must be paranoid -- I transfer my important data files between my laptop and desktop daily, using a flash drive, and back up those and other datafiles to a CD once a month or so.