I think I'm going to be sick. I just went to back up my writing files to my thumb drive, which lives on my keychain....and it's GONE. G-O-N-E. I'm not so upset about losing the drive itself -- you can get 2GB ones for pretty cheap -- but it's got copies of all my writing files on it!
My cover letters, with my name, address and phone number on it. Two completed, unsubmitted novels. Several short stoies, all my writing challenge entries, my Big Finish win. My creative endeavors, things I've worked really hard on. Only other writers would understand why this is so upsetting!
It's password protected, but..... I still think I'm going to be sick.
JodieG
Prepublished and workin' to change that!
A winner of the Big Finish 2 Contest, March 2008!
Participating author in Pass the Plot, Summer 2008
What a loss!
Oh Jodie, try to think positively....maybe it's on the floor of the car or somewhere you just haven't looked yet....I hope you find it!
Jayne
Community Manager
"We cannot really love anyone with whom we never laugh." ~ Agnes Repplier
Oh, Jodie!
That is awful! But, maybe a miracle will happen and you'll find it again. It's possible you might find it out in the yard or crammed down the crevice of furniture. My DD lost a pendant in our backyard last summer and we were sure it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but I'll be danged if she didn't find it a couple of weeks later!
Yes, as a writer, I do know how frustrating losing stories and projects can be. Years ago, before I learned to back up my stuff on cd roms, my computer crashed and... well, I lost everything stored on it. Talk about devastating. So, yes, you have my most sincere sympathy.
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
- Mark Twain
Oh Jodie! I feel your pain
Oh Jodie! I feel your pain even though I'm not a writer. Hope you find it.
"Perhaps what the average member of a group is capable of doesn't limit what a given individual can accomplish." -- Boston Globe, letter to the editor
March's Member of the Month!
Yes, hope you
Yes, hope you find it in your purse, or car. You might backtrack and see if someone turned it in somewhere. Good luck and so sorry that happened.
The D2K Paranormal Junkies ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
Oh no!
(((Jodie)))
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
Thanks, ladies!
In the light of day, I know it's not as bad as I thought. It's only backup copies of my writing...the originals are still here on my computer (and you'd better believe they will be backed up elsewhere this morning!!). It's just the thought of someone getting hold of something so...personal.
I've got a few places to check...one grocery store and the library, where I give them my keys (I have one of those thingamajiggies that they scan on my key ring). I'm going to check work to see if it fell off around my desk. DH's car, my karate gear bag....a few other possibles. I told DH if I can't find it, then I hope it fell in a parking lot somewhere and it was run over by a car. I just don't want someone getting what's on it!
But thank you. I knew you'd understand. And you're right, Fake Frenchie...you don't need to be a writer to understand. I'd probably feel as much of a loss if it were family photos or something else personal...
JodieG
Prepublished and workin' to change that!
A winner of the Big Finish 2 Contest, March 2008!
Participating author in Pass the Plot, Summer 2008
{{{hugs}}}, it is upsetting
{{{hugs}}}, it is upsetting to lose anything personal and writing is very personal. Hope you find it soon.
Nancy
Jodie - I know the pain of losing hard disks
so I've sent you an email about a solution that works for me
Have you tried praying to St Anthony? He's good at finding lost stuff
Hugs
Sadhbh
Dream Team 2008 Challenge blogs
No more excuses, just READ!
Sadhbh...
I didn't get an email. :-( I'd love to hear what you do that works for you, cause I'm pretty bad about the whole backing up thing....Thanks!
PS...how do you send an email to someone on the board? I'm guessing there's a way to do that through their profile, but I don't know the trick!
JodieG
Prepublished and workin' to change that!
A winner of the Big Finish 2 Contest, March 2008!
Participating author in Pass the Plot, Summer 2008
I hope you find it. I just
I hope you find it. I just bought another flash drive to save backup files of my work and now I know I need to get to it.
See what I read last year - Star's Reading Lounge
http://www.myspace.com/kimanipress
http://www.myspace.com/kimani_tru
I sent it via the contact button on your homepage, maybe
you'd better check that it hasn't gone to Spam, otherwise email me at (edited out) and I'll get back to you
Hugs
Sadhbh
Dream Team 2008 Challenge blogs
No more excuses, just READ!
you have three emails to look out for
Hope that's clear enough
Hugs
Sadhbh
Dream Team 2008 Challenge blogs
No more excuses, just READ!
Got it, thanks!
I just emailed you back. What a great idea!! :-) Thanks!
JodieG
Prepublished and workin' to change that!
A winner of the Big Finish 2 Contest, March 2008!
Participating author in Pass the Plot, Summer 2008
Oh no!!! :-(
Aw, Jodie! That's awful!! Keep searching. Don't give up! And thank goodness you password protected it. I know that's no replacement, but... gosh, I don't even know what to say. Have you searched your car? Do you remember the last time you used it?
I hope you come across it very soon!
Live, love, write...
http://corazane.blogspot.com
Nope, Cora, never found it...
i'm pretty sure it's history. Blech.
JodieG
Prepublished and workin' to change that!
A winner of the Big Finish 2 Contest, March 2008!
Participating author in Pass the Plot, Summer 2008
I feel your pain
My husband recently did this to his drives for work. He gets in these moods where he feels the need to clean up fast and starts throwing way things. BAD IDEA... He threw them away... We looked up and down the house for them and finally he decided that he needed to look in the trash and voila they were in there. He is way more careful now! LOL I hope if you don't find them that they are somewhere where they got destroyed. They are like your personal private thoughts. I would feel the same way. GLGL!
Aggie
Housework can wait, I wanna read!!!! =)
Team Pretty in Pink~~
My Crazy System
I once lost my writing, pictures and just about every when my pc crashed.
So now I've gotten so paranoid about backing up that I back up to CD’s and I even back up to a remote email address like gmail. I made sure no one knows this email even exists.
I don’t know if this is sane or technically correct but it’s worked for me so far.
Backing up .....
for those very important files .... accounting records ... pictures .... manuscripts ... ms ideas ....website templates .... etc ..... please backup in more than one way
we had a major software crash ... not hardware .... but software .... files went corrupt ... not a virus but could have been a bad update of any one of the programs we download updates for that inadvertently corrupted the software . or a bad system restore (I suspect this) .... and as this software is mostly archives of our acctg ... I hadn't checked it out .... now I really need those files and guess what .... corrupt
now that should be okay because I backed up to tape over the years and as the records hadn't changed any ... not a problem ... simply pull up tape for two years ago and restore that ... perfect no more software glitch
huh! .... the tape was damaged .... I sent it to techs to see if they could retrieve what I need .... they got some stuff but the files I need, nope nada
so .... whodda thunk? .... two different ways of losing valuable data ......
so now .... I back up to a totally removeable hard drive ...... my office attg files I email to myself and our acct once a week .... and I save to USB drives various spreadsheets and word files .... and now everyday I take the drive home and sync to them to files on my laptop .... my ISP is now offering free online storage that I'm looking into ... as I could use this in place of the USB drive that I physically have to transport
gosh, ... I've gotten long winded here
basically what I wanted to say was ... backup in various ways .... the very most important files have backups that are at home and backups that are not (safe from fire, burglary etc) .... and if you have a desktop and a laptop, synchronize your files between the two regularly so that if one crashes you can carry on with the other
I'm now rebuilding five years worth of data from scratch ... not fun ... lesson well learned ..... even your backups can fail! .... oh, and when was the last time you checked to see if your backups would actually work if you needed them to?
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
A little late to comment but
How terrible! I sympathize!!!!! My old computer crashed last December and I lost all my writing and ideas, etc..just like you. But thankfully I had it all backed up on my jump drive. So while I waited months to get the $$$ to buy a new computer everything was on my jump drive. Then I had someone walk behind my desk at work and rip the casing off of my jump drive. I almost passed out I felt so sick when I saw the empty casing on the floor. Thankfully the hardware itself was still plugged in to the computer even though it was exposed and bent at a 90 degree angle. I had to save everything to the computer at work, buy a new jump drive that night, and put it back on the jump drive at work the next day.
I do have a new computer now and my files are backed up on my jump drive and I bought a portable external hard drive to backup files every week.
Just curious, How do you password protect files on your jump drive? I had thought about it, but didn't know it was possible.
my email: starr_girl1@yahoo.com