Important advice

[Stefani]

I have just spent the last week in utter turmoil. My computer's hard drive became hopelessly fragmented when a security update was being installed while some other "automatic" update was doing its thing in the background. Apparently the Adobe update overwrote the code that the security update was performing and all hell broke loose!

Here is my earnest advice for all of you. ONE: Turn off all automatic updates of your software and only update manually. TWO: regularly backup your important data and applications. You never know when this could happen and you HAVE to be prepared.

I was able to retrieve all my files, so nothing of importance was lost, but I had to spend money to do this---I used Disk Warrior (a $99 program) which rebuilt my directory after working on it for 8 hours. Once the directory was rebuilt I could use the corrupted computer to transfer files to a back up hard drive.

After all this work, I still had to erase and install the operating system and reload my software and redo all my settings (email, browser, etc.).

So please, please, please, let me stress again: BACK UP YOUR WORK!! Daily if working on critical projects, weekly otherwise.

When I was working on my dissertation I read a story about a woman who had her entire book disappear when her house burned down and she didn't have a back up of her project saved. When I read that, I made sure I carried around a back up copy and put another in a safe place away from the house, just in case. Years of research were not going to go up in smoke if I could help it.

I know it's strange, but when I see footage of natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornados and floods in the US and see the devastation, the second thing I think about (after the well being of the PEOPLE) is that all their computers and all that infomation collected and projects worked on are gone forever. Last year when the hurricanes came one after the other, I backed up the hard drive and took a copy to work, just in case. Turned out the house was fine but the office at work was a total disaster---the rooms on the side of my building where my office is were flooded and I lost a ton of notes and many books.

Sorry to rant, but I am telling you that one day you will have a comptuer failure---it happens to EVERYONE. Don't wait to take precautions now.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

[diana]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Stefani.

I keep meaning to buy an external hard-drive to back up everything I can't afford to lose -- but I never get around to it. Hearing your story has spurred my good intentions.

[Audrey]

I do have an external hard drive. I spent a little over a hundred dollars on it. I get a new home computer about once a year. My husband updates the ones in his office and I get one of the "old" ones. With this external hard drive, not only is my data safe-- I can be up and running on a new machine in a matter of minutes.

[Edisto]

I've read that Margaret Mitchell had only one copy of "Gone With the Wind," although she had revised some of the chapters and kept more than one version of those. She would complete a chapter, put it into an envelope, and stash it somewhere in her apartment, such as a kitchen cabinet. When a publisher asked to read it, she had to round up the various envelopes and give him what was often her only copy to read. Seems odd, because I believe the Mitchell family business was copyright law. I know that after her book became a success, she was more than diligent in protecting her interests.