Monday 10 May 2010

Disaster averted by pretty, shiny storage.


My computer is temperamental.
The battery died so it has to remain plugged into the mains for power, which means it sometimes overheats. No problem. I've learnt to dangle it over the side of my laptop case -or knee - so it stays cool. But two weeks ago it over-heated and turned itself off.
"Nooooooooooo."
Yes, I did scream a little bit. Okay, my mouth dropped, and my hands flew off the keys in a panicked display of terror. :)
Thankfully it was all okay, I'd done a Ctrl-S beforehand. But I can't have that trauma again. So, I bought a laptop tray with a built-in fan to keep it cool. So far, so good.
I also have another new toy. It is beautiful, sleek and fits neatly into my book stuffed room...

It's a 1.5TB external hard drive.

As writers we hear all the time we need to save our work. The terror and night-sweats that come with a computer glitch or not being able to find a file is too much to cope with.

I've posted before about the beauty of backing up. I have two usb sticks, my email, and a hard copy. Oh, and a copy saved onto my laptop. Because I don't think I really want to sit and type out my hard copy again.
But that was before the over-heating trauma. And before Toshi-Ba the laptop (yeah, my computer is called Toshi-Ba, heehee.) started protesting it is filling up. Memory is low, blah blah bleh.
I will upgrade my laptop at some stage. But, until then, I'm not risking it again. I want to write. I need to write. I also need to save my work.

So Omega the hard-drive has arrived - like Mighty Mouse - to save the day.
And all is write with my world.
Phew. Back to the edits...


14 comments:

Vicki Rocho said...

Every couple days I email myself the latest version. Not ideal, but will save my butt if the computer dies.

My old computer died...motherboard went out on it. Tried replacing, but it died again in days. STILL need to extract data off the hard drive. Mostly pictures.

Matthew MacNish said...

Ooh cool, that sounds awesome. Technology can be so wonderful ... or so terrible.

Lose some important document only once and you'll become diligent about backing up.

Jaydee Morgan said...

I agree with Matthew - if you've ever suffered through losing work, backing-up becomes job one.

I'm glad to hear you didn't lose anything :) and keep saving your work!

Mayowa said...

Very creative laptop name Missy :)

Glad you didn't lose anything!

Amparo Ortiz said...

Phew! Close call. My first laptop was a Toshiba, too! It did seem to heat up pretty quickly, and sometimes it didn't save my files correctly.


Like you, I have two USB sticks, my email, and the laptop's memory. Guess I'l need to consider that external hard drive, huh??

Avo said...

Eryl from "the Kitchen Bitch Ponders" uses what she describes as a pretty nifty service in this post.

I use the multiple hard disk method.

Lydia Kang said...

Scary! I use Dropbox and my hard drive right now. Dropbox is awesome!

Jessica Bell said...

Oh goodness, thanks for reminding me to back up! I haven't done so in months!

Talli Roland said...

Er... I'm amazed you can get so excited about a hard drive. Have you been drinking? :)

Lindsay said...

MissV. Motherboard frying...that sounds like a nightmare!

Matthew. I agree. Now the thought of loosing work makes me want to hit save.:)

Jaydee. Back up is my new adopted motto. :)

Mayowa. Lol,thanks. I'm glad I didn't loose anything too. I really would have screamed. :)

Amparo. Hmm, sounds like a problem with that brand. My hard drive wasn't that costly either. Better than spending loads on a new laptop. :)

Alesa. Thanks for the link, gonna check it out now. :)

Lydia. Thanks for the tip. Gonna check Dropbox out.

The Alliterative Allomorph. Happy to provide the reminding service. :)

Talli. Lol. I know, it's a sad little life I lead.Now to the drinking...heehee.

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Oh, the nightmare. The idea of losing everything terrifies me - big-time! I'm glad you got your troubles worked out.

Emily Ann Benedict said...

Computer problems are terrifying! Mine crashed last week. I just sat there, listening to it run in high-gear, wondering if it was going to burn itself up. :P

At least, they are great at teaching us patience. ;)

Lindsay said...

Shannon. Me too. I bet my face was a picture. lol.

Emily. OMG, I'd panic. True though, I guess it is technology teaching us patience. :)

Hannah said...

I love my external hard drive, so so useful.

But I have experienced loss before.