Having had
complete loss of my desktop(s) not once, not twice, but (gulp) thrice in a
period of a year, the matter of preserving one’s work is not a theoretical one.
Yup, 2022 was a doozy for my shouldn’t-have-trusted computer(s) and two years later, in August of 2024, I once again experienced the joy of having to transition, as my oldy (they all were) desktop needed to be replaced because Windows 10 support ends October 2025. Happily, for now, we crossed that bridge. 👍
I learned a few
things in the process. Best thing was to (finally) succumb and pay for cloud
storage. The thing is, I am not sure I know how to retrieve my digital contents
from the cloud. If you do, let me know. But it feels better to have it.
I also learned
that my habit of saving all my documents onto flash drive(s) saved me from total
loss. More than one flash drive, because I have had these die without warning
in the past. I've also had two hard drives that backed up and died. Best thing about this sort of saving (flash drives) is that I do know how to
retrieve and upload when the need comes, and as I said, it came and came and
came.
In the pre-historic
days when I first began using a computer, I printed everything that mattered in
order to have hard copies. Flash drives weren’t invented yet and didn’t become
ubiquitous until later. I had files saved to a CD, which was somewhat more
cumbersome.
The hard paper
copies are great for proofreading, but if the digital work meanders to the
great nowhere ether forest or evaporated by a bug, it means typing and typing
and more typing from the printed pages. It isn’t an elegant solution. But in
those ancient times I just didn’t trust the ephemeral nature of words on a
screen. I only believed the reality of something I could hold. I still feel this way about books I am
reading, by the way.
But digital files
need a digital back door storage.
What do you do? I’d
love to know.
4 comments:
Oh dear! I recently invested in a Seagate external drive and when I went to copy my photos onto it, I discovered I had 28,000 files! Yikes! I have Windows 10 and have resisted upgrading it to Windows 11. Do you suggest I go ahead and take the pain of doing that?
Ooofff, I feel your pain, Mirka. It's no fun. Flash drives, emailing docs to myself and a friend so they're on the cloud (and on different computers) have helped. We had an external drive and that failed. So I'm thankful for the printed photos and the ones on my blog. It's one of the reasons I post a lot of pictures :)
I am one non-techie who has found Widows 11 to be very good and not painful to adjust to, Lorraine. Because for some who have computers who are too old for Windows 11 (your computer's Windows will tell you) for me this meant a new motherboard and rebuilding the desktop to the way I like to have it. But because I've had to do this recently too many times (three desktop deaths two years ago) I was a veteran of digital home ressurection. If your computer does meet Windows 11 requirements, the move will be much swifter and you'll only have to learn where the new OS keeps things. Some changes, but all good.
Vijaya, I recently emailed my WIP to me first Beta reader even though she can't get to it for a while just to have it on someone else's computer, so I get it. I love the photos you share on your blog, a bonus for us.
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