Alright, writers! Here is your Wednesday Writers Weigh In...better late than never...but I had that champagne to drink to celebrate receiving the Liebster Award. Yeah. I won the Liebster Award. Did you know that? :)
Anyway....
Today's Weigh In is "ripped from the headlines", as they often say. Many of us in the 12x12in'12 community were saddened when a fellow writer had her laptop stolen out of her car and therefore, her novel was gone. Horrifying...and a writer's worst nightmare.
In a movie with Colin Firth it is funny, even charming. But in real life...not so much!
I got to thinking...how should I save?
I mean, I have an external drive that I save to (although I admit not often enough).
Should I also email copies to myself?
Print copies out?
Use an online source like Dropbox?
So....writers...Weigh In! How do you save?
Please comment and get in on the conversation.
I am way totally guilty of not saving. I've got some older stuff backed up on discs - I know, so last century! And I have one email address where I send stuff and just leave it there in case... but I haven't done it in ages and I'm WAY behind. I'm told iCloud might be the answer, but I haven't figured out how to use it. So how's that for unprotected? :)
ReplyDeleteThat experience was certainly a wake-up call for a lot of us. I save to an external harddrive, but not regularly. I *MUST* make it a habit.
ReplyDeleteI'm concerned about anything like iCloud -- I wouldn't want it as my sole backup, in case there was a crash, or some other factor that made it inaccessible.
I think I'm going to do a backup right now, and set a reminder in my iCal (Calendar with pop-up reminders on my Mac) to backup every night before I turn off the computer.
P.S. When I read the fine print about my "Time Capsule" with my Mac, I learned that ever since I set it up, it's been automatically backing up my files regularly. It's smarter than I am!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a Time Capsule -- so cool. Therefore, I am not as good as I should be about backing up. I backup about once a month, but I just started using DropBox. Love it!
ReplyDeleteI like having hard copies too! Redundancy is key!
I use DropBox, too. I dropped my laptop 3 weeks ago and the hard drive was toast! I didn't even sweat it because I knew it was all on DropBox. I, also, use Picasa for photos. So, essentially everything I need is online and accessible from any computer or device :•)
ReplyDeleteExternal hard drive that prompts me to backup every 10 days. However, I've often thought of "the cloud."
ReplyDeleteI know that I already weighed in but....I have a handy link that talks about cloud storage with a short introduction and then the best free online backups. You will sleep better if you choose one.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-online-backup-sites.htm
Great Blog! I'm presenting you with the Liebster Blog Award! Visit my blog for more information on promoting this, and be sure to pass it on.
ReplyDeleteCongrats!
Debbie
Hi Marcie, Oh my! Besides all the lovely thoughtful comments that I received I realised a valuable lesson in protecting my writing and other material such as photos from my laptop. I now have a external harddrive and while I have used flashsticks before and still love using them I will ALWAYS remember NEVER to have anything left inside the laptop bag besides the laptop! Have been checking out the cloud to, thanks for that Penny.
ReplyDeleteSo many options here! I save to my computer mostly. But I'm in the process of backing up precious things like my writing and the photographs we've taken to an external that will stay in a safe, just in case something happens! I've thought about using an online place too, but not sure how I feel about that yet.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who lost half a novel and two picture books in the Joplin tornado. I now use an external hard drive I keep in a safe... AND the cloud. Never can be too careful!
ReplyDeleteI write using Googledocs, so everything is saved in my google "cloud." It's also nice because I can access it from anywhere... I also have external drives that I back up on, as well as a CrashPlan account. (I also have all my illustrations on my computer...)
ReplyDeleteI have an external drive that I work FROM rather than save TO, meaning every single file is on the external and I just create shortcut links to my desktop. That way, I never have to think about backing up. That won't work for those of you who are mobile; although I use a laptop, I work at home, so it's fine for me. Once I get a Mac I'll have to change strategy, however...
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. And congratulations on your Liebster. I have a faith-based saving approach. That is, I have a 1.5 terabyte external hard drive which, in theory, "saves" the contents of my computer daily. I'm hoping it is working as advertised because our computer is showing signs of aging, which of course happens much faster than in dog years....
ReplyDeleteI use Mac Time Machine which saves as I go along so I don't even have to think about it.
ReplyDeleteI also use CrashPlan. Our plan backs up to two remote locations (hard drives at relatives' houses in two different states- rather than cloud). We also have an external harddrive. It backs up almost continuously.
ReplyDeleteI tend to email novels as I'm working on them. But sometimes I do get behind. Generally only by a week though, if at all.
ReplyDelete