1. The-Joker

    The-Joker Contributor Contributor

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    Novel The anguish, the pain...

    Discussion in 'Genre Discussions' started by The-Joker, Sep 21, 2008.

    You’re on about 80k of your latest novel, proud of all you have created so far and looking forward to the completion of a fine embodiment of good literature… when lo and behold, your computer crashes and your entire hard drive is wiped clean, effectively consigning your masterpiece to an early virtual grave.

    Ever happened to you?

    And did you cry? (Be honest:p)
     
  2. Lucy E.

    Lucy E. Active Member

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    OMG! That would be awful!
    I always save my stories/novels to a memory stick. :)
    Ever happened to you, friendly neighbourhood clown?
     
  3. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Nothing that bad has ever happened to me. I've lost a few thousand words, at most. But to be honest, I'm far too paranoid about that for it to happen. I have all my writing backed up onto an external hard drive, a memory stick, an SD card, and an old MP3 player :D Huzzah for obssessive redundancy!
     
  4. Lucy E.

    Lucy E. Active Member

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    Excessive much, Banzai?! ;)
     
  5. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Well I've never lost an 80k novel yet :p
     
  6. The-Joker

    The-Joker Contributor Contributor

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    Thats, DSM criteria for obsessive compulsive disorder, lol. No, such a tragedy has never befallen me, thankfully. I save my stuff every once in a while on a flash, which often takes me about half an hour to locate. Once I dreamt it happened. Frightening stuff.

    But surely somebody, somewhere must have suffered this fate...?
     
  7. Lucy E.

    Lucy E. Active Member

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    Good argument. :)
    Then again, neither have I. :D
     
  8. Lucy E.

    Lucy E. Active Member

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    If they have, poor them!

    Yes, Bazai, you should definitely get checked for OCD. :) I'm not that obsessive, and I have it! :D ;)
     
  9. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Haha. I sometimes wonder if I do. But it doesn't really affect my life (other than the organisation of my documents, etc) so I don't see that it matters. How bad is yours?

    And wow to the new avatar. Do you glow like that in real life? :p
     
  10. Lucy E.

    Lucy E. Active Member

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    .
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2020
  11. Speedy

    Speedy Contributor Contributor

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    Better compulsively safe and have everything well i say!

    Have my work saved on two computers and two memo sticks in two houses ;)

    MIND YOU - to be honest, the quality of my work, really isnt worth it, BUT its my baby and i have to look after it at all costs...

    When i was younger i used to have to check locked doors and the such at least four times before i was happy with the result (same with taps before going to bed), im better now....im down to 3 times!
     
  12. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Hehe, angelic :p

    That's my thinking. Well, that and if I don't back everything up 20 times over, my friends and family will die a horrible painful death.


    (That was a joke, by the way. Apologies if it's in bad taste :p)
     
  13. Nilfiry

    Nilfiry Senior Member

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    I back up my work on plenty of stuff. I even send a copy of it to my email every month or so. I have lost a few thousand words before, however, because I forgot to back it up.
     
  14. Lucy E.

    Lucy E. Active Member

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    That's me!

    [​IMG]
     
  15. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Haha. Well, if the halo fits :p D'ya have wings too? :p
     
  16. Lucy E.

    Lucy E. Active Member

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    Of course!

    [​IMG]

    Wow...we are SO off-topic. :D
     
  17. tehuti88

    tehuti88 New Member

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    I've never lost everything, thank God. I wouldn't only cry if I did, I'd probably want to die. (And I'm not being dramatic or exaggerating here. My work is my life.)

    Fortunately I save my work to a flash drive, and most of it is posted online (the finished stuff, at least), so...*crosses fingers*

    It's such a situation that I don't even want to think about it too much. So I don't.
     
  18. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    We are, actually... :confused: How did that happen...?
     
  19. Speedy

    Speedy Contributor Contributor

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    You know.. i always wanted to see what it looked like when one Swallowed a light bulb.


    ;)
     
  20. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    I'm afraid I'm gonna have to nudge this back topicwards now, or I'll be in trouble :p
     
  21. Kratos

    Kratos New Member

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    I'll help. :)

    I've only written 35k, but my computer crashed, and I hadn't put any on a flash drive. I was freaking out. But my dad's friend managed to salvage the data, and now I put it all on a flash drive, and print some out.
     
  22. Gamecat

    Gamecat New Member

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    [​IMG]

    Back to the topic then, I once lost a 30K story to hard drive failure, it was fairly poor as it was way back when I'd just started to write seriously but it did teach me the importance of OCD when it comes to backing up your work, I now back up from computer to laptop to SD card to external HDD. I'm a great believer in redundancy.
     
  23. TheAdlerian

    TheAdlerian New Member

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    No, but something close.

    I had ever paper I wrote in my doctorate program on an old laptop. I sent it in to Geek squad to get the hinge on the screen fixed.

    It came back with an entirely new hard drive and several other things which I didn't ask for, and ironically were free, and upgrades. However, I wasn't pleased with it.

    I called the Geek office to see if I could get my drive back. They said they drill a hole in each one they remove and throw it away. I became so outraged that if I could have gone to the center I would have done illegal violence to a variety of people.

    Thankfully for all of us, they were located across the country.
     
  24. Speedy

    Speedy Contributor Contributor

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    Are you serious....sounds very fishy

    See if that was me, id have got three mates and gone on a road trip to whoop some butt.
     
  25. Ungood

    Ungood New Member

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    To answer your question. Yes this happened to me. I lost three stories that were roughly around 350 pages each, because I never count words, just not my style, not my thing. (And everyone knows that word count changes drastically with each and every revision, if it does not, you're doing it wrong) I had one that was working on my second review of to correct grammar and flow of the story, even talked with an agent about getting it published. They liked what I sent them and wanted to see it when I was done with the editing.

    Then my Hard Drive just stopped working.

    I lost those stories and about a dozen short stories.

    I cried when I told the agent that I lost it, they just told that I should have backed it up and that was our last discussion, which means.. .Sucks to be you..I don't blame them, they have a job to do and I screwed up so they move on to the next contender.

    I have not recovered from that to tell the truth.
     

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