So really, how crazy do you get about saving your writing? :crazy2: Do you make copies on CD or disk? Do you keep these out of your house? Are you one of those who doesn’t save every page or so as you’re writing? 😯
Have you ever had THE BIG LOSS?? :wallbash:
I save as I go along. Constantly. Email a copy of my file at the end of the day to an email account on my website that I never download. I have all my complete manuscripts and proposals backed up to CD and in my desk at work. You know, off site. 🙄 I back up frequently to a thumb drive. Yes, I’m a little psycho about saving my work. :typing: How about you?
(and do you save old hard copies of really old manuscripts too??)
Yeah, I’m a little nutty, too–I save to my Yahoo briefcase every time I write, plus I have older versions of my writing, in case there’s some nugget of genius amongst the dreck. That way, I can write wherever I have internet access, with no messy discs. If Yahoo goes under, I might be in trouble.
I do have some hard copies of really old manuscripts. They are on papyrus they are so old. They are written in hieroglyphics 😆
I save to an external drive about once a week or if I’ve had a burst of writing. I used to break up my ms by chapters but found that was too messy, so I stick with one “draft” and replace it everytime it changes. When an ms is done, the first thing I do is email it to my friend. She burns it on a cd and keeps it stored for me. That’s about as anal as I get. When we had to evacuate a couple of years ago because of the fire, I grabbed my CPU first thing. Then the photos. Then the kids.
Saving, I do that alot. At least every page or so if not more. I’ve had the computer shut down or the power go out way to often for me not to. I have a jumpdrive that I save my work on and it goes with me every where. At least once a week I’ll have my husband do a backup to CDROM. I have gone the email route and the briefcase route before but not lately. I have one hard copy of one of my manuscripts in it’s orginal format.
Megan, I used to use Yahoo, but then some friends and I had this weird thing where Yahoo GAVE AWAY our list to another group with the same name but a hyphen in it. 3 years then POOF we were gone. Our archives, our files. Everything. I emailed the “new owner” about what happened. She was as clueless as we were. I’ve never trusted them since.
Rene…LOL on the save the CPU..then photos..then kids
I have copies on CD, disk, hard disk, hard copy, and jump drive. Who, obsessive? Me? :rofl: Of course, usually there’s only one recent copy but I save so frequently, if the worst happens, I wouldn’t lose more than that day’s work. Haven’t had the Big Loss yet and hope I never do!
:wallbash: I lost a manuscript 200 pages in before. But then I rewrote it and it’s a 500 page finished manuscript now :rofl: As for saving, I save to C and D and also a secondary hard drive :angel:
I’ve had the big loss. Several times. Now I back up to a memory stick. Two of them that I switch off with, at least once a day …
My computer crashed when I moved. THANK GOD I had everything backed up on my USB stick so now I’m very anal about saving-though I was pretty good at it beore. I even started a yahoo group JUST for saving work to. I have all my old contest entries (for the IRS) but I dont save hard copies of my ms I do however save by date so I end up with like ten versions of my ms. One had four final edits :wallbash:
The Big Loss? Oh, yeah. I literally had a motherboard fail on me as I finished the manuscript. The entire file was corrupted. I had print outs of most of it, but since I’d run out of ink and hadn’t replaced the cartridge, there was about thirty pages that I lost.
Since then, I created a locked live journal that I can upload material to, another backup besides the printouts and the cds.
And, yes, I do save printouts of the really old manuscripts — save for the one I ceremonially burned because I wanted to put a stake through it’s heart. Didn’t work — I found a backup floppy about eight months ago. Yes, it was as bad as what I remembered.
I am back-up crazy. My two computers are networked, so I save stuff on both of them every night, send copies to an email account. I used to be much better about making CD copies…guess I should get into that habit again…
And yes – I save all the mss I’ve printed out, because you just never know.:typing:
I save to three flash drives, send it to mm e-mail and have a hard copy. I’ve lost manuscripts so I know.
I actually have a fireproof box that I keep my hardcopy in. I remember one time we were leaving for the weekend (this is before the fireproof box) and I actually put my entire manuscript in the FREEZER.:razz:
Yeah, I have old hard copies, copies on CD, laptop and computer, but I don’t back-up everyday like I should. It’s going to ream in the arse one of these days. 😉
I don’t backup as much as I probably should. But I save every time I add something to my ms. I don’t know why I don’t backup to another source. It’s not like I don’t have plenty of choices to backup to.
OH YES!
I’m constantly shuffling and trying to backup my stuff on several different mediums. I’m even considering getting a safe deposit box to store my cd’s in.
And I’m scared sh**less that I’ll lose something majorly important.
Grins*
I’ve had the Big Loss, and I save everything to a file, email it to myself, then save it on my own yahoo group as well. I also sometimes email it to my husband as well.
I save in email attachments to myself. I can download anywhere from any computer if I have to.
For those of you who don’t put your backups somewhere away from the house…how do you sleep at night?? 😯
Well, after hearing these horror stories, I’ll back up more often.
I do most of my writing on my laptop and I save constantly. As for backing up, I have a memory stick that I save to ocassionaly (not as often as I should) and also save things to my hubbys computer.
I don’t save the WIP I’m working on regularly though. Making a vow to email it to myself every day.
My Husband is a complete paranoid about losing info and backs up everything on the P.C. daily onto out laptop which he then puts into a data drive.
I do not recommend living with a computer geek. My home is complete tangle of wires.
I’m really lax about saving. I save as I write, but rarely do I save all my files to something external, like a flash drive or disks. I’m SO bad…