Help! Help!

Own fault. Busy this afternoon, words flowing freely, typing as fast as the the creative brain. Just kept doing a page, as the story progresses in my mind, heading for the finale, when the cumputer did a quick *^&%$#$, and my document disappeared. Obviously a power surge with the weather. So I've lost over 2,000 words. A bummer, because my head won't go back, it only wants to go forward. Have tried to retrieve it, but it wasn't even titled. Is there a way, or hope of getting it back? I'm going to continue on now that I've calmed down, and if I can't retreive it do it again later.

http://gay_belle.livejournal.com

The Zing Thing: "The Makeover."

'Southern Scriber.'

thats the best thing to do!
Had the same thing happen to me on about tuesday, pretty sure its all still there on the other hard drive, won't find out until about tuesday though... I remembered the last line I had written and just carried on from there. It can be so hard trying to go back and rewrite!
Fingers crossed for you that it is still all there, and good luck with the rest of your writing :-)

http://vyanae.blogspot.com/

I've said it before, I'll say it again;

AUTOSAVE!!!

Check your help index it should give you step by step instructions for whatever word processing system you use.

I cannot lose more than 20 mins work unless the whole hard drive explodes (and even then it would have to take the memory card with it!)

I speak from experience!

maggenpye -
"He's not my dad, he's just my father - big difference."

Thanks guys, it helps to know I'm not a complete 'ninny.'Been trying to do all the help,techie stuff and noticed the autosave, so handy to have that.I suppose I should be thankful,I didn't have a complete power cut like others in Southland, with a plug in.
Is it really your birthday maggenpie, and did you get some presentses from precioussss?

http://gay_belle.livejournal.com

The Zing Thing: "The Makeover."

'Southern Scriber.'

I've been backing up after every writing session after hearing about all the crashes you guys are having. It's happened to me before and I totally get what you mean gaye-belle about your head not wanting to go back there. You could carry on from where you were and leave the gap for the edit.

No Excuses. Just Write.

Gaye-belle - yes it really was - 42, which means I suppose, that I have the answers; to life, the universe, and everything!
Better than a graffitied ring, I got warm slippers, chocolate and alcohol.
My friends and family know me well!

maggenpye -
"He's not my dad, he's just my father - big difference."

Congratulations on your presents. I like the idea of slippers, chocolate and alcohol too :-)

Maybe I should reward myself at the end of the month with 1 or 2 of these things!

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/

My head hurts, my stomach is lurching, but my feet are really warm!
The hangover is having a very bad effect on the word count.

maggenpye -
"He's not my dad, he's just my father - big difference."

ha! maggenpye, I have 20 years on you, and have have gone through a few more slippers, chocolates and alcohol in that time :)
Now guys, what happens now the 50,000 limit is reached. Just doing final editing, do I add a synopsis? Being computer semi-illiterate, how is it best to send the story in? I have groups of different amounts of pages, some 7 some 2, would it be best to send it via website, grouped in order.That is, the noreply contact address? Cheers Gaye.

http://gay_belle.livejournal.com

The Zing Thing: "The Makeover."

'Southern Scriber.'

Hi Gaye

This year we don't have a word count validator on the site. Basically if you say you've written 50,000 words by logging them on the challenge page then we believe you and you're a winner!

Next year we're looking to have a validator where you could upload the work to the site.

Congrats!

No Excuses. Just Write.

gaye-belle,

I feel for you. I lost 2k words in an unfortunate back-up accident.

I use open office for editing (my MS word substitute) and ctrl-s will save your document - no issues. I hit it all the time while I'm typing.

During write-in and word wars, I do it after each session (10 minutes). I would do it more often, but I wouldn't write as fast if I did! :)

Travis.
--
http://cottreau.blogspot.com
http://cottreaureviews.blogspot.com/

Oh good, so I've finished then. Thanks for the tips and ecouragement, guys and gals. Great site!
Certainly enjoyed the experience, looking forward to the next challenge.
You don't know what you can do till you try.
Keep on tracking to those that still have their heads down, and fingers to the keys.:)

http://gay_belle.livejournal.com

The Zing Thing: "The Makeover."

'Southern Scriber.'

Good advice above; the Control key and the S key pressed at the same time is the universal 'Save' shortcut, supported by, if not all, most Word processing software. If you type ten words, get into the habit of hitting Ctrl+S afterward. That way, if it all turns to custard, you have only a few words to type.

As the owner of a computer repair business I can tell you that we inform at least one person a week that their data is gone, and there is no hope of recovery, due to hardware failure or user intervention. Often we can recover it, though in what state is hard to predict. Some people actually cry, but this situation is so easily avoided, especially with documents because they are usually so small and therefore easy to archive/save.

The best thing is to buy yourself a USB pen drive. They are relatively cheap and you shouldn't need a large-capacity one; I would recommend 1 gigabyte. As long as your computer is relatively modern (post Windows 98) it should work as soon as you plug it in. It will show up as another drive-letter in your 'My Computer' area (or as an icon on the desktop if you use a Mac). At the end of every session, copy the whole document you have been working on onto the drive. Than put it in your handbag, or safe, away from the rest of your gear.

For those of you still backing up to Floppy Disk - throw them away and get a pen drive. 75% of our data recovery services are carried out on floppies, and data can usually be recovered in around 33% of cases. They are notoriously unreliable and will fail even when sitting in a drawer doing nothing.

Being completely paranoid about data loss, I also upload a copy of my work to one of my web servers; if my hard-drive goes 'phutt!', (a distinct possibility - they all do sooner or later) and my pen drive dies as well (rarer, but possible none-the less) then at least I have an off-site copy.

It might all seem too technical and so much hassle, but it's way easier than typing out that blockbuster you just finished all over again.

As a free service to anyone registered on this forum, if anyone wants a simple backup script, customised for their computer, let me know. This gives you a one-click backup to a pen drive, local drive or external hard drive, whatever you have there.

Message me if you are interested.

I guess I should put some funny quip here.

Thanks for the info Dave! Those stats are scary. I work alongside the IT team at my work and we get a lot more hard drive failures than I would have expected.

Thanks for the backup offer too. I have a techie boy at home so I'm sorted for backups (so long as I press the button) but I'm sure other members would be interested!

No Excuses. Just Write.

yes, thanks Dave, I'm going to get one of those them pen drive thingees. I am a total learner operater, my husband is an engineer but not an IT techie, just as ignoramous as I am :)

http://gay_belle.livejournal.com

The Zing Thing: "The Makeover."

'Southern Scriber.'

Worth their weight in gold, Gaye-Belle. Good luck.

I guess I should put some funny quip here.

The other thing I know a lot of people do is email themselves a copy of their document. Certainly with all the high capacity free email providers out there now, it's really easy.

Of course, not everyone wants to do this since even though your email is private it is then stored on someone else's computers which a few people might not be happy with.

Whatever approach is easiest for you I think. And the Pen Drive way is certainly a good one.

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/

I've got a nice little 2 gig pen drive that I store my things on, but since I have a terrible history of losing tiny important things I also back up all my files on my gmail account. I find that it's a good system.

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Yeah me too. gmail is pretty handy for that kind of thing

http://vyanae.blogspot.com/