Have You Backed-up Your Writing?
With every day that passes we in first-world countries become more and more used to technology. But often it’s not until the car dies or the electricity goes out or we accidentally run over the mobile phone, that we realise just how reliant we are on it. The same can be said about our dependence on computers. They can be wonderful when they are working, a real time and energy saver, yet when they play up! Have you backed-up your writing?
Every day we type more into our computers and save more on the hard drive. They contain vast amounts of information, in most cases more than we know about and more than we care to know about. But they also contain our precious manuscripts, ideas, jottings and research material. So many of us have made our computers the keeper of our work, yet what insurance have we taken that we will be able to retrieve the info later?
Consider for example, the last piece of writing you were working on.
How long did you spend creating it?
How many words did you type?
How much does it mean to you, not just emotional but possibly financially too?
And now the big question, how would you feel if during the night for some reason, (perhaps a virus, a power surge, even burglary or fire) that work disappeared, never to return?
Have you got a spare copy of it, or is the one and only locked in your hard drive forever?
Making extra copies of your work or backing up is often overlooked, yet we’d all agree the task is more time consuming than difficult. Memories of staring at the computer screen, listening to the whirring and waiting for the familiar text message that tells you your floppy disk is full and that you need to insert another, are all too familiar for some.
Yet the arrival of USBs has seen a job that would have taken several floppy disks and 10 mins, now completed in seconds. For storing information USBs have come into their own. Plus they also have another advantage, their storage space, or rather - their lack of storage space.
Which brings us to another important consideration. Even if you follow the most disciplined routine of saving and backing up, there is still the chance of losing your work. None of us can predict what’s going to happen in the next two hours, two months or two years.
We all like to think nothing will happen to our homes or belongings, but can we really be 100% sure? Insurance companies would be broke if we did. But there is no policy that can return any of your words that are lost, for this reason it’s wise to consider storing your information online or using any of the newly appearing ideas.
Every day we type more into our computers and save more on the hard drive. They contain vast amounts of information, in most cases more than we know about and more than we care to know about. But they also contain our precious manuscripts, ideas, jottings and research material. So many of us have made our computers the keeper of our work, yet what insurance have we taken that we will be able to retrieve the info later?
Consider for example, the last piece of writing you were working on.
How long did you spend creating it?
How many words did you type?
How much does it mean to you, not just emotional but possibly financially too?
And now the big question, how would you feel if during the night for some reason, (perhaps a virus, a power surge, even burglary or fire) that work disappeared, never to return?
Have you got a spare copy of it, or is the one and only locked in your hard drive forever?
Making extra copies of your work or backing up is often overlooked, yet we’d all agree the task is more time consuming than difficult. Memories of staring at the computer screen, listening to the whirring and waiting for the familiar text message that tells you your floppy disk is full and that you need to insert another, are all too familiar for some.
Yet the arrival of USBs has seen a job that would have taken several floppy disks and 10 mins, now completed in seconds. For storing information USBs have come into their own. Plus they also have another advantage, their storage space, or rather - their lack of storage space.
Which brings us to another important consideration. Even if you follow the most disciplined routine of saving and backing up, there is still the chance of losing your work. None of us can predict what’s going to happen in the next two hours, two months or two years.
We all like to think nothing will happen to our homes or belongings, but can we really be 100% sure? Insurance companies would be broke if we did. But there is no policy that can return any of your words that are lost, for this reason it’s wise to consider storing your information online or using any of the newly appearing ideas.
