The key here is back up, back up back up. I have a 5 GB card and I back up
on a daily basis. the reason for me is that I am adding addresses, planned
meetings etc on a daily basis.
Well written message from the sender.
Franklin
At 02:17 PM 11/26/03 +0800, you wrote:
Laura,
This is what happened to your backups: the contents of the file on the
Flash Disk were wiped out before you did a backup, and because you could
only do backups while you're outside the file, you were not aware that the
file was already blank or corrupted.
What should be done with the BrailleNote?: Hurl it to the street below
from a 10-story window. Just kidding! You can send it to the Philippines
if you want because there's a kid I'm helping here who needs a
notetaker. OK, what's the right way of making backups?
1) Someone advised using the Copy File option in the File Manager instead
of the Backup Option in the Utilities Menu. I wouldn't recommend that for
ALL files, maybe just some, but not all, especially the databases. That's
how I lost my copy of an 8.13 MB e-mail DB.
You would think that the file is being copied successfully. You would
even be asked about replacing an old DB copy. But when you need to load
it back into your unit, it's gone... not just the contents, but the file
itself. The Backup Option hasn't done that to my knowledge.
2) I'm sorry I did not reply to your post earlier. I should've corrected,
or at least added something to, the advise to do multiple backups. Notice
that the reason why you've lost three months worth of work on that file is
because you do not have old backups lying around. The right thing to do
is to retain complete, not corrupted, backups during certain times. This
would depend on how much storage space you have.
For example, you should not just have one backup folder on your cf
card. I have a backup folder for November, for October, for September, so
on and so forth. You could have weekly folders if you want. They do not
contain the same stuff because I move to a different storage those I won't
be needing anymore in a different month, and files in the newer folders
are longer (more updated) than those with the same file names in older
folders. Thus, if I lose a file saved in the November folder but was
originally created in July, I don't lose data from July to November, but
just for November. The shock of losing data in this case is more
tolerable (though still not completely forgivable).
3) Since you already have learned (though learned it not from this list,
but the hard way - from experience) that relying on backups made on to cf
cards using your BrailleNote will inevitably corrupt data, if and when you
have your own computer running a respectable screen-reader, save or
transfer to it copies of all important files (databases, lecture notes,
planner or lists of appointments and phone numbers, etc., meaning, you
don't need to include those that you can download from the internet again,
or are just your "scratch" files, and the default BN files such as the DB
definition files, Readme texts, and Dictionary files).
Remember, using Active sync as some have suggested can also give you data
loss problems because it had been mentioned here before that large files
(the minimum problem size is unknown) likewise get truncated during file
transfer. Thus, as I have suggested many times to you off list, get a
PCMCIA Type II adapter for ease of file transfer from BrailleNote to your
laptop. If you're family is getting a desktop, then get your own card
reader if you cannot take home the one you use in school. Neither the
PCMCIA adapter nor the card reader would cost more than 30 dollars, so
getting one or both shouldn't be a problem for you.
You can keep the Keyword files in their format when you save them in the
computer, but I would suggest, if you're not feeling lazy, that you
convert the lecture notes (or those you use on a daily basis) to another
format as well that is readable on the computer (say, .txt or .rtf) and
save both the Keyword and non-Keyword copies of the important files, just
in case you follow my suggestion above of throwing your BrailleNote out
the window, <laugh>. BTW, I use two cf cards for this purpose. One
contains the backups accessed through the BrailleNote. The other contains
the files that are to be transferred to the computer, which in your case,
I suggest that you check the size once on the laptop and if it does not
correspond (say it's 0 or a smaller number than the original size), then
you can be sure it's corrupted and must be replaced with the complete one.
4) Though no one would confirm this to be true, I still think you need to
get 48 MB on-board memory. I have much longer files for my notes in
graduate school, containing not just my notes in class for the five months
of a semester, but also researches from the net and solutions and proofs
from four different math books, that the files reach a size over 4 MB,
with extensions such as .kwb, .kwt, .rtf and .doc, but I have never lost
data in any of these large files. You know for a fact that the only files
I've lost or got corrupted are the databases, but if you can take my word
for it, though I save copies of all important files in my laptop since I
got it, I have had no need to load them back to my BN yet.
People can call my insistence on the link between data loss and the 16 MB
memory pure speculation, but they could never explain why I haven't had
problems with large files getting truncated or wiped out. A few say their
units have 48 MB memory and have lost data, but I think that's already due
to mishandling of files (e.g., not giving the BrailleNote enough time to
finish its "house-cleaning" tasks when saving, exiting, opening, copying
and moving files, by turning off the unit or pressing RESET or pulling out
the cf/storage card too soon), which would explain why only few of these
48 MB memory users report losing data.
Speaking of house-cleaning matters, the word "disbelief" is written NOT
with the "letters" b e contracted as dots 2-3 (see your original subject
line) because using that lower sign in the middle of a word is to contract
the letters bb. This is true for grade 2 Braille, not just Duxbury on the
BrailleNote. But as for DBT on the BN, I think I've told you this
already, you cannot use one- and two-cell contractions before an ellipsis,
and that you must spell them out; otherwise, they are mistranslated as the
letters comprising the contraction (see your message below).
HTH,
Roselle
>----- QUOTED MESSAGE -----
>Sent by: Laura Wolk <"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"@smtp.enter.net
>Oh Kellie, I sure hope you don't have some sort of vendetta against me,
because you will not believe what has happened. Obviously, because I can't my.
>After my data loss yesterday, I did what any good user would do, and
backed up my data, not once, but twice. B... everything, absolutely
EVERYTHING, is gone from three files. Not just on my flash disk, but in
both my backups as well. This time it's not just missing information,
absolutely blank documents. I think I'm in shock actually because it's
inconceivable for me to realize that three months worth of work, energy,
time... is just gone, from three subjects. J...' poof! I, well, I guess
I know what I'll be doing this weekend, either begging, pleading,
groveling, bribing friends to send me their notes or going through the
whole thing myself and doing it. Laura
___
To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit
http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
Franklin Johnson
National Training Consultant on Assistive Technology for the Blind
Rehabilitation Research & Training Center on Blindness
Mississippi State University
(662) 325-7831
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.blind.msstate.edu
