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.
