Backing up

[Vertigo]

I have considered it and I will probably go that way now they are more sensibly priced. I have just put a new powerful server into our lab which has a 300G SSD for the OS and a 6T (2x3T RAID) for our data. You don't want to know about our backups and archive arrangements in the lab! This is the first time we've used an SSD, frankly it doesn't make much difference to the speed (our bottle neck is data access and the SSDs simply aren't big enough at a sensible price for our data needs yet) but it does seem like a more robust solution for a laptop.

I probably won't do the replacement before it goes. I maintain full backups of the data partition and images of the OS partition. So I can recover from a complete HD failure within an hour or two.

 

[Boneman]

Went away to China for two weeks at end of November, so I did back ups, sent emails to myself and then put my USB stick in a very safe place in case cleaner or staff or children moved it. Took me until today to find where I'd put it.

 

[Vertigo]

I have 'safe' places like that, Boneman. They sometimes turn up years later It's a bit like the coal tits in my garden. Most of the sunflower seeds that they stash for safekeeping in my various flower beds end up growing rather than being eaten. Ho hum.

 

[Parson]

I have 'safe' places like that, Boneman. They sometimes turn up years later It's a bit like the coal tits in my garden. Most of the sunflower seeds that they stash for safekeeping in my various flower beds end up growing rather than being eaten. Ho hum.

Never heard of a coal tit before. It's a good thing I looked it up or I might have made some embarrassingly inappropriate comment.

 

[Vertigo]

Ah yes I wondered if I should have clarified that for non-Brits . It's a very small bird that has the habit of stashing its seeds by planting them in the ground.

 

[Ursa major]

Never heard of a coal tit before. It's a good thing I looked it up or I might have made some embarrassingly inappropriate comment.

You mean you'd have asked where it put its stash of coke...?

 

[Glen]

Backing up is so important ... I have a dedicated Gmail account for my writing, and every time I save a new version of my manuscript, I also attach it to an email and send it to myself

Top advice. I used to do (more or less) the same thing, by creating a draft in gmail with an attachment of my thrilling masterpiece.

Have you tried Google Drive? It is a CLOUD drive where you can upload and store your docs. Your PC (and more importantly your HDD) can die of old age, succumb to a house fire or an alien invasion and you can still access files you've saved.

 

[prizzley]

Your PC (and more importantly your HDD) can die of old age, succumb to a house fire or an alien invasion and you can still access files you've saved.

Undoubtedly it's Google Drive and all the other "clouds" that have led the aliens to us.

 

[krgreen]

I feel rather under-prepared now I've read all this!
I have one USB stick that I backup my novel onto whenever I remember (and thus am backing up as I type this), and I have the drafts saved by draft number (e.g. I'm on Title - D6), odd snippets copied into evernote to edit at work, and have the file saved in both word and scrivener.

But I'm thinking I may have to get another usb stick. Just to be sure.
Although the one I have is the same type as one my friend had that got run over by a car and still plugged in/works despite the dent. So fingers crossed it's fairly safe...

 

[Ursa major]

Indeed, and Dropbox was hacked a few months ago.

That's why I use GMail only, as I figure it's more personally secure than general cloud apps.

It must be comforting to know that really secure copies of one's files may be being held by the NSA and at GCHQ. (Oh, and that Google would never dream of being a publisher....)

 

[Vertigo]

Do you suppose they would respond if you told them you'd lost your data and could they send a copy... pretty please?

Oh and krgreen, I would recommend getting an external USB drive for your backups. Memory sticks are all very well but for something critical like a backup they're just too easy to loose. Also you'll get a lot more storage for your pennies allowing you to, for example, retain old backups by putting each backup in a separate date-named folder. If you start doing that you might be surprised how often you realise you want that bit of text again, you know, the one that you deleted just the other day.

 

[Colbey Frost]

I don't actually use a back up system. What I've done is transfer my work over to a new machine whenever I get one. The older machines are wiped / sold. At the moment I have a mac book, if I lost all my work I'd start something new. I'd be gutted, but I'd start something new.

 

[Kylara]

YAY! My new externall HDD has FINALLY arrived, much smaller than my other one, battery powered and nice and small, I am rather excited to get it up and running

 

[Vertigo]

Woah, Christian, seriously, with that approach you will sooner or later lose all your work. These thinga are simply not that reliable.

regards
Worried of Inverness!

Kylara, why battery powered rather than USB powered or is it to extend your laptop's battery?

 

[Kylara]

Battery powered so that I can take it with me places and not have to worry about lugging a great big AC power cord along - it is sooooo much lighter and smaller (actually pocket sized) so it means that if my entire laptop is on it, then I don't have to take my giant laptop with me if I am going places which have computers, it fits nicely in my bag/pocket - my laptop doesn't!

Also I find that USB powered tends to slow my laptop down quite a bit as processes take longer when it is charging stuff. I also have a problem with my laptop power that is unfixable (which is annoying) where the laptop will suddenly just shut down as if it had no power even though it does or is plugged in. dodgy components, and although I could take it apart to find out which ones and replace them, putting a laptop back together never seems to work very well I am just hoping that it doesn't die mid important process and corrupt itself, which could happen...

 

[Gumboot]

I work off an SD card, both on my laptop and on my desktop. I have a dedicated SD car slot just for my writing, and use Allway Synch to backup the SD card to my desktop every time it's connected and once every hour while connected.

Roughly once every six months I copy the backup folder to a different hard drive on my desktop, and burn two copies to DVD, one of which I keep and one which I send to my parents to store.

I used to work from a USB stick but I found the stick itself can break too easily, rendering the data inaccessible. An SD card is much more robust because it's just a sheet of plastic.

 

[jastius]

Having been stung and kicked in the proverbials so often with crashes, I now use a non-Internet connected laptop to write on and back up using usb sticks. It means I have more memory sticks than I know what to do with (or know what's on them). But at least I'm backed up fully.

I use a lot of memory sticks also, because i transfer from machine to machine depending upon what programs i need (and my favorite laptop for writing is too old to be internet friendly... just love the memo system on it much too much).
with all those similar memory sticks in play, here is my solution for organizing and remembering what is on each stick. because i sometimes end up buying three or four of the exact same memory stick on sale, I use a set of memo key tags that you can get a dozen of for a dollar, (the type car dealers use to tell car keys apart). then i attach the key tag to the memory stick with a description of its contents. once the key ring is attached i can organize all my memory sticks on a board. Instant files.

 

[sinister42]

I use Google Drive. That way I have my Drive folder on any computer I happen to be using, and if that computer happens to die (which happens more often than I'd like), I haven't lost anything. I suppose I should back up a local copy of stuff, but I haven't been doing that.

 

[Rafellin]

I use a 3-2-1 backup strategy: 3 backups, on two different types of media, with one offsite.

I have a main backup drive, a core backup drive (that lives in my fire safe) and a ridiculous Corsair GTR USB drive that had encrypted copies of my personal data. If I leave the house, it comes with me. For encryption, I use AxCrypt with a silly-length key.

I do ad-hoc encrypted DVDR backups that are held in a 'bombproof' safe at a friend's house.

As the adage goes: "if you're not backed up in at least three places, you're not backed up."

When I'm writing hard, I back up my work when I finish each night/morning. If there's going to be serious changes, I take a local copy and add a version number to the file name before starting.

I never use any storage that is not under my direct control - and in my possession.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Another Google Drive convert here. Much as though I think Google does a lot of things wrong, the Google Drive is a very easy to use and well done.

Backed up via my desktop, laptop, and Mac to the same account.