William D. Bandes sent this URL,
<
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/technology/circuits/16POGUE-EMAIL.html?_r
=1&oref=slogin>
Quite personally, what scared me into backing up the complete contents of
my hard drive (and implementing a triple redundant backup system which I
maintain religiously) was when my NON-backed up hard drive "hiccupped" on
me and ate about 30,000 words of the novel I was writing at the time...my
last three weeks of work on it, gone forever, unless I'd be willing to
rewrite from scratch from the point of what was left. Yes, that's what I
ended up doing -- after a whole week of being too sick to my stomach to
face the music, so to speak, but after nearly a month, I actually rewrote
all the lost scenes (good thing I usually work from an outline). Hahaha,
don't think I wasn't tempted to give up on the novel, but...okay,
couldn't make myself do that either.
In any case, I burned every last bit of my data and all apps that I
didn't already have on CDs, onto CDRWs, which I update regularly in
exactitude -- and after I reburn them, I check them by opening random
files or apps from the backup CD). Files and folders that change often
get daily backups on both Zip and floppy (for transfer to my Powerbooks).
Heck, I am STILL so paranoid from the aforementioned incident of the
partially eaten novel that while writing, every time I finish a scene, I
IMMEDIATELY back it up on both Zip and floppy. Hell, as soon as the Mac
is finished powering up, I insert the appropriate Zip and a floppy into
the drives so they'll be ready when I need them!
My Saturday ("Geek Day," I call it) ritual is: Clean up Emailer -- file
the contents of Sent and Read Mail to the folders for my individual
correspondents, put stuff I'd like to keep from the Downloads folder in
the folders they belong in, then delete the junk downloads -- then I run
Tech Tool Pro on the HD and optimize it with Norton Speed Disk, and
lastly, update the backup CDs.
Now how I had ever let myself get to the non-backed-up state I was in at
the time that big chunk of my novel got eaten, I don't know. You see, the
first Mac I ever used -- a Mac Plus in 1986 on which I was doing desktop
publishing (Pagemaker 1.0, imagine that!) for the travel agency who was
my employer back then -- I implemented a backup system from day one and
used to devote the last half hour of my day to running backups (yes, all
on floppy back then) of my full day's work! Maybe it's because I never
had to USE any of those backups on that job which made me loosen up --
way too much, obviously! -- when I finally got a Mac to use for home?
Well, not since mid-October 2004 (that was when Eat The Novel Day
occurred). I've definitely reverted to being a meticulous fiend about
backups...and they've served me very well, as I have had to use them
sometimes, so it's not solely a matter peace of mind.
~Yersinia.
________
"Only dead fish go with the flow."
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