Somebody broke into my damn truck while it was parked outside my house. They broke my back passenger window and stoke my company laptop and my personal laptop. I had 16 short stories and a novel work in progress on that thing. I had emailed one of the short stories to my wife to read over but that's the only one i can save. I'm so pissed off I can't see straight.
Only one word can sum this up. *ahem* <EXPLETIVE!!> Sorry this happened. The closest I can come to this is when I lost everything to a computer virus and I hadn't bothered to save them to a thumbdrive. Very sorry this happened.
Bummer, that's absolutely awful. [updates my own back-ups on three flash drives and puts them in different locations] Once when I was in college I went home to LA for Christmas. I bummed a ride with friends back to Eugene, OR. We stopped at their friends' in San Fran. In the morning we awoke to the car having been broken into and everything I got for Christmas was gone except one sweater I had taken inside. Later when I was dancing at a tavern I returned to my seat and that sweater had been stolen. I know this is nothing as bad as losing something I was working on. But your experience brought that year back to me. Just start over. In a year, it will be water under the bridge. But I am truly sorry that happened to you. Maybe the computer will be recovered, you can always hope.
I guess its payback for the dirt I did when I was a kid. You never think about how your actions will hurt the person. On top of everything I signed a agreement that stated I was responsible for the company laptop and now i owe the company damn near 2k
Back when I was going to school for Graphic Design I had a lot of design work on my lab top and the damn thing crashed and I lost everything... now I back up my entire computer all the time...
Too late for you I know, but just an FYI for everyone else: I had a computer crash when I was working on an extensive policy. I was able to recover most of it with some recovery of lost files software.
Sorry to hear this happened to you. This is my biggest fear and why I save in multiple places. I have dropbox and flashdrives. Dropbox syncs across laptop and desktop and I can save to flashdrive from either computer. There is just no losing what I've been working on.
Something like Dropbox is a life saver. Also, in a situation where you have a drive problem you can often recover your files with a Linux live CD.
Second Dropbox, but now there's the iCloud and google drive. You really no reason not to use a cloud.
I use a Time Machine secondary drive, but it's still in one location. I think it's time to put everything to a Cloud based backup as well. Sorry this happened to you.
Sorry for your loss. As a writing I can relate to that as a deep fear. If it helps I can tell you what I do. It is... hard for me to lose my writing. 1.I have a thumb drive with anything I would be sad to lose. 2. I have it on my computer. 3. I have I as an email attachment I send to myself as a virtual back up. 4. I also have an external hard drive 5. And if I really like the work I have a printed hard copy Remember, always back up stuff. It doesn't have to be a thief. Arriving home and noticing your computer crashed(did happen to me) and losing data because it corrupted. Or Dropping your computer. Moral of the story, sometimes it rains shit. I recommend bringing an umbrella. Goodluck on your rewrites
Things like this are why I started having various stuff automatically save to my iCloud. It'll never be lost! But I once did lose everything not so very long ago. I chose to look upon it as a positive experience and a chance to start fresh and implement a lot of things that I've learned.
Do you have the kind of auto insurance that will pay for theft? Of course this won't restore your work, but it might compensate you for the loss of both laptops. The fact that your window was smashed shows that the car wasn't left unlocked. Here's hoping you do. And I can only echo what everybody else here has said ...back up your work. Always back up your work. Back up your work to the extent that you begin to think you're paranoid. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean bad stuff won't happen to you! I'd suggest an online backup of some kind ...emails to yourself and a friend, of stuff you want to keep. And don't rely on a computer-based email system either. Make sure it's the kind of email system that you can access from any computer. Flash drives. Flash drives are good because they are cheap, and can be taken with you in a pocket, on a keyring ...stored inside your house, given to a friend, etc. Make several copies on flash drives. One of the flash drives can get corrupted and conk out. Make sure you have several. A separate hard drive to frequently back up your entire computer system. And make sure you store it where a thief isn't likely to find it. And a printed copy. That's one a lot of people scorn these days, but I know it has rescued me on a couple of occasions where a file got corrupted (consequently so did the backups) or I accidentally deleted something I meant to keep. I don't use the Cloud, so I can't recommend it particularly, but by all means use that too. I wouldn't rely on it entirely, though ...if something gets screwed up there it will be beyond your control. Yes, all this takes time, but once you get it organised you won't mind taking the extra 10 minutes or whatever to update the stuff you've been working on that day. And by geez, it's worth it. As you are now aware, I'm sure. I've always maintained that somebody who loses precious work this way won't ever do it again. Don't be discouraged. Just look on this as a learning experience, and keep going. Either attempt to re-write the stories you've lost, or just move on to new ones. But don't ever leave yourself vulnerable again. And good luck getting an insurance company to pay for the theft. That would at least mean you won't be out of pocket.
Looking for someone to help me publish 16 short stories and part of a novel. Also, if you are looking for a new laptop, pm me.
I echo what @GuardianWynn and @jannert said. Back up your files on multiple locations: Thumbdrive, laptop, mail, Dropbox, etc. You can do it once per week if you want, but make sure you have a backup copy for everything. And it goes for everything, not just your writing.
Sorry to hear about what happened to you. I'd check with the car insurance provider to see if contents of your vehicle are covered. If your truck was parked on your drive (your own property), the loss may be covered by your home insurance. I'd check out the local second-hand shops too, as the thieves may have sold the laptop there. If all fails, you can probably do a better job of writing your short stories and part novel now, than you did originally.
Enough has been said about the necessity for multiple backups, but there'll still be those reading who think they'll get around to it later (I used to have a round tuit. Pretty but useless.) We got a burglar alarm fitted the day after we were burgled. My next-door neighbour wasn't too worried as there was plenty of protection from every other house that was alarmed. He had an alarm fitted the day after he was burgled. Stable - horse - bolt.
Oh my God, I don't know how I'd handle that. I turned into a monster like a half an hour ago when Word crapped out and made the entire file (a short story) I had worked on for 2 hours disappear. I only lost that 2 hours of editing work, which I wouldn't have if I had saved more diligently, and it felt like the end of the world. So yeah, hang tough, and hopefully you'll get some compensation from the insurance company...
