Keeping Your Work Safe

Hi everyone, i was wondering what methods do you use to make sure you don't lose your work. I have a memory stick which i save my updates of my work every day, is that enough?

Computers are not the most reliable with viruses etc floating around but it's just much quicker to write using a word processor.

I can't imagine how i would feel if i was nearly finished my novel and my computer starts acting up again.

 

I email it to myself in two locations.

 

I've got my writing on a memory stick and write to it directly, so I always got it with me. I put backups on my hard drive from time to time, but that's it. If you don't trust your computer much, perhaps you could copy it to a CD, periodically.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

I always save it in my two e-mails and in an external disk, just to make sure

 

I use a memory stick at the moment but when I have a substantial body of work I think I will save to CD every so often.

 

Amazon S3

 

I have it saved on my laptop, and also on a flashdrive. I save it both places each time I write. Maybe I should take another method to be extra safe....

 

I have my work on two laptops, an external hard drive, and a memory stick. Also, I keep hard copies on paper.

 

Pen and paper, baby.

 

Dropbox.

 

I use Dropbox. It has the added benefit of allowing me access from anywhere to my stuff without the need to carry anything physical which could be lost.

 

Copies on all my harddrives. Including the one on my computer, that's 5. I also recall copying them onto a CD and giving it to my sister for safe keeping. I dunno if she still has it; I hope so! I heard a horror story of someone losing everything about their book in a house fire and thought it would be better to also keep something *outside* my house.

Speaking of which I need to make new back up copies...

 

For the novel that I finished writing--but not revising--I sent it as an attachment to myself through Yahoo email. Off-site backups, like others have mentioned, are integral to a good backup strategy.

Having said that, I backup my data to DVDs every time I update my linux partition. So those are floating around as well.

 

I usually write with pen and paper first. Then I type/revise. Then I save it to my laptop, my husbands desktop, my flash drive, and our external hard drive.

 

On a simular note. Is there a way to put a password lock on a usb flash drive (8GB). I would like to keep things like my CV (resume) and my work protected as I take my flash drive everywhere in case I need to print something off or I want to takes files from friends. If I ever had it stolen, the thief would have ALL my personal info, address, phones, etc...

Ask a friend or relative if you can back up on to their computers as well.
There are secure places on line to store info.

 

I'm not an expert on the subject, but I think there's a way to encrypt saved files through word...also, you should be able to download encryption software to use with your flash drive. They should sell flash drives that you can password protect, too, but I don't think all flash drives come password-ready.

 

i use a memory stick, but also keep a print copy of all completed work...

 

External hardrive that automatically backs up my files daily, print copies, and a flash drive.

 

You can either buy a flash drive with built-in encryption (Kingston and Sandisk have many models), or use the free Truecrypt software (highly recommended). It's safer than encrypting individual files, since the word processing program may write unencrypted temporary files to the disk.

 

Will the software have to be installed on every PC I use?
Say I go and use a desktop at work, I cant install new software on it as im not admin.

 

I think it's so funny that we all save our work to email!

Normally I'm away from my personal computer when I'm typing, so I've found the best way to save my work is in the "Draft" folder of my email. When I have a chance, I save a copy to my personal computer just in case.

Works just fine for me. I hate messing with flash drives...

 

I'm very careful about what I click when I exit, and what I delete when in the writing folder. I keep my writing on a flash drive so if the computer crashes, we're all good. =) Though flashdrives are little, so their easier to use, so beware taking them into public places if you have multi uses for your flashdrives, or just get two, lol. And for people like me 4GB isn't enough for my writing. So, beware of your size limit.

 

I use a flash drive and keep copies on my desktop and laptop.

 

One memory stick doesn't sound like enough - one major computer problem while writing to the memory stick and you could trash the hard drive and the memory stick at the same moment. It's not likely, but it could happen.

I'd recommend an absolute minimum of two devices in addition to your main computer, plus periodic hardcopy printouts, _plus_ occasionally putting a hardcopy printout somewhere other than your home - maybe a safe deposit box, maybe someone else's home, maybe your office. Hardcopy may seem worthless because it would all have to be retyped, but the cost of paying to have it scanned or retyped would probably seem pretty trivial if you really did lose all of the electronic copies.

Really, it would also be wise to store an electronic copy away from your home, and that's what you should do if you have other computer files (like irreplaceable photos) that you can't imagine losing. But with a relatively low data volume item like a novel, I'd be happy enough with an offsite hardcopy.

ChickenFreak