It should be said, that while the author knew and embraced these truths, she certainly didn't heed them--that was, she didn't until last Tuesday night when her nightmare became a reality.
Ok, so maybe, just maybe, I over dramatize. But then, maybe I don't. When you spend hours, no--make that DAYS, in front of your computer screen, creating and conjuring up epic heroes and ill-fated love affairs, you tend to think the work in front of you is valuable, and something worth saving. This explains why screams of terror were shouted when the screen on my laptop dimmed and a message with the dreaded words, "System Error", blipped last Tuesday.
I immediately began to panic. While a majority of my work was backed up, my current work in progress, for some reason unbeknowst to me, was NOT. I somehow forgot to make the extra step to copy my story in an email and send it to myself. I mean, after all, things like crashing hard drives don't happen to me...right? WRONG. They do. After waiting two grueling days for the computer techies to diagnose my sick computer, I received the tragic news: A crashed hard drive with no retrievable data. Everything was lost.
Sure I spilled a few tears. Sure I mumbled a few cuss words. But I didn't wallow. I brushed the dirt off my knees, picked up a new jump drive, an external hard drive, and Microsoft Office '10 (because my new internal hard drive had no programs installed on it) and set out to write again.
Yes, I'm still upset with the whole ordeal. But I'm more upset with my lack of precautions than with the loss of my story. Sometimes, there is a reason one loses everything. Sometimes, a new beginning allows us to pursue greatness. After all, I wanted to start a new story...right?
3 comments:
I'm VERY happy to see that you picked up an external hard drive! That could save you those tears in the future. If it will save automatically for whatever time and date you set, all the better. :)
It's been said that when a disaster like this happens and something must be rewritten, the new is even better than the original.
May crashed hard drives be a thing of the past and the rewriting go well. :)
Happened to me and my story was better for it. Enjoy your pink jump drive. ;0)
Oh, My GAWD! I can't think of anything worse than losing family. I've had data loss and MOURNED it. Really. I'm such a woose/whiner about it. I wasn't better until I found an old copy on an ancient disk. Really. I can imagine your pain. If you still have your hard drive there are people who can sometimes retrieve your data. My brother is one of them, but there are others out there. If it is worth it to you. Starting over isn't bad, and sometimes things are better for it. I'm so sorry. Now I'm so paranoid about it, I don't just back up on a different drive, but also a travel drive which I leave with a friend of mine so that if my stuff gets wiped out at my house, I still have a copy somewhere else. And the refresh/save on my word program is set for three minutes. I figure I can recover a loss of what I wrote in the last three minutes.
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