Why I'll Always Backup My Work From Now On

Last week I got robbed and stranded at the beach wearing only a bikini a couple of sizes too small, then this week my computer died.

That’s right, one minute I was typing away happily and the next minute the screen froze and the computer refused to restart, even when I got my clever geek, and husband, on to it. Unfortunately I hadn’t backed up at all and I’ve had the computer almost a year.

Okay, I had backed up my 65,000 word manuscript by emailing it to myself at my gmail account, but what about all those amazing stories, articles-in-the-making, ideas and writing tips that I’d built up over that time? All gone and never to be seen again according to the geek, who smuggly reminded me that he had bought me a little memory stick and I should have used it.

In the end my wonderul geek, who I love more than anything, managed to recover all my work, but not before a few hot tears had been shed, mainly by me. Then I had to use the kid’s computer but Facebook and Twitter were banned by the clever anti-filth detector, K9 Web Protection Services, even though I wasn’t trying to look at any filth. I promise.

My geek claimed he couldn’t remember the password so I couldn’t access my two favourite websites, but when I started shaking, hallucinating and mumbling incoherently from the cold turkey he found the password for me. I didn’t realise how bad my addiction was until my online social networking fix was denied me.

So folks, the message is back up your work daily. At least. And just in case that fails get yourself a good geek. They are truly indispensible in this digital age and every creative type should have one. Mine is versatile too. He also makes bonny babies and can be quite funny at times. Plus he’s a dab hand at gardening, cooking and finances and exceedingly handsome too, so I’m a very lucky lady. I will have to be nice to him for ages now but really, he’s worth it.

We all need a bit of help and support in our daily lives and I’d love to hear who your everyday hero or heroine is.

Two, four, six, eight, who do you appreciate?

Good luck with all your plans!

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10 Comments

  1. Jimney Cricket May 30, 2009 at 4:16 am - Reply

    Haha that’s great! I’m always afraid that my computer will crash at any moment- and the disk drive quit working just when I bought disks to back it up. Being without a memory stick large enough to hold everything, I’m just kind of holding my breath and hoping it will hold out until I can get a new computer. ;)

  2. Annabel Candy May 30, 2009 at 8:19 am - Reply

    Fingers crossed, Jimney! I’m lucky and my words don’t use up much space.

  3. Jimney Cricket May 30, 2009 at 8:26 am - Reply

    Haha thanks! Unfortunately if it were to cross I would lose alot- several hundred pages worth (I’m guess at least 700) plus nearly 2,000 photos- all stuff that I wasn’t able to get on disk before it stopped working. Hopefully I can get it working again so I can save all that information. Fortunately I seem to be surrounded by those wonderful computer geeks that you mentioned. (aren’t they great?) ;)

  4. Annabel Candy May 30, 2009 at 1:54 pm - Reply

    Yep… you’ve gotta love those geeks!

  5. Teresa May 30, 2009 at 11:21 pm - Reply

    Too late…I can’t even turn on my laptop :( The thing is this has happened to me twice already…some people never learn!
    Love the photo!

  6. Annabel Candy May 31, 2009 at 9:06 am - Reply

    History repeating itself? But I’m sure there must be a lot of gorgeous geeks who’d love to help out this damsel in distress.

  7. CoralM June 1, 2009 at 1:40 pm - Reply

    I don’t have a geek so I’ve just backed up! Thanks for the reminder Annabel…

  8. The Procrastinating Writer June 3, 2009 at 12:45 am - Reply

    I’ve lost several things I’ve written due to a similar occurance. Thanks for the reminder to back my stuff up! I’m considering an online storage/backup system, that way I can access my writing for anywhere in the world.

  9. kola June 11, 2010 at 9:50 am - Reply

    LOL! i think it’s hilarious that you refer to him as “my geek”…too sweet. thanks for the tip. I’ve added “huge flash drive or something” to my shopping list. If my laptop dies before I go shopping, i’m coming back here to pour out my hysteria :)

  10. Seana - Sydney, Kids, Food + Travel November 10, 2014 at 9:46 pm - Reply

    Hahah, I’ve just seen this post on Google+ and am falling around laughing at the photo, Annabel… that’s so funny… Can I recommend Backblaze, for back ups not smooching.

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