Back up your work!!

[ratherastory]

A friend just had her laptop stolen with a bunch of stories/drafts/notes on top of all the other stuff on there. I think this is as good a time as any to make a public service announcement to you, dear flist, to back up your content. Do it now! If you don't have somewhere to back it up, buy, beg or borrow a flash drive, or email it to yourself using a free web mail like gmail.

Seriously, back up your shit, you will be glad you did.

Comments

[embroiderama]

Ugh, so scary! I feel like my laptop is the most easily and attractively stealable thing in my apartment, so I've been hiding it under a pillow or something most days just in case. I mean, I don't think there's a big problem with break-ins, but if somebody ever did break in here my concerns would be the cats and then the laptop. Thanks for the reminder about backing up. I'm sorry that happened to your friend!

As long as we're doing commercials...

[greeneyes-fan.livejournal.com]

Good advice! I just picked up my WIP folder, dropped in a private section of my Dropbox, then wondered why I didn't do that years ago.

If you don't know Dropbox, check it out. It's the greatest free product you aren't using. Now that my WIPs are in Dropbox, every time I hit Ctrl-S, it's saved on my computer AND backed up online, as long as I'm connected to the Internet. And I can access it anywhere!

[rayvlin.livejournal.com]

If you trust it, Microsoft does have a program called windows live mesh that will sync folders to multiple computers. This uses a hotmail account. There is also SkyDrive synced storage within the hotmail account. This is very convenient since it will automatically sync a selected folder within a minute depending on connection speed.

Another method would be backing up your stories by sending them to yourself through email.

Please understand this is NOT an advertisement but just a method of storing digital data. Everyone has their own opinions about various companies but the option is there. Personally I only use this for school work and misc. things like wallpapers.

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

Yep, I pretty much live on googledocs.

Re: As long as we're doing commercials...

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Good idea, I totally have a drop box. *does the same*

Re: As long as we're doing commercials...

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

What exactly is it, where can I find it, and is it compatible with Macs?

Re: As long as we're doing commercials...

[greeneyes-fan.livejournal.com]

www.dropbox.com, it is perfectly compatible with my mac and my PC at work.

You want to download the software. Then I have a little "Box" icon next to my "airport" icon. Then you save stuff in different sub-folders, and you can make some public to everyone, some shared with specific people and some private.

And you get MASSIVE storage space! I used to use it for high-quality video files.

Re: As long as we're doing commercials...

[peppervl.livejournal.com]

Yes, get it. I adore Dropbox. It works on all computers, you can get it on your phone too, and it keeps everything backed up. If you don't make the folders public, no one else can see, but you can also share folders so if you co-write you can save to the same folder, and you can make folders available for public viewing.

Actually, the gallery of Kirra pics I linked to is on Dropbox.

[yasminke.livejournal.com]

Amen.

Back up your work, children!

[kasman.livejournal.com]

Got a friend who swears by Carbonite.

Personally, I backup important stuff between laptop, desktop and portable h/d, especially things like photos. I have in the past lost a bunch of photos and other important stuff to a harddrive meltdown.

Re: Back up your work, children!

[kasman.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with that kind of paranoia.