Minor panic

Hippo

Hippo

Every time I've done any work on my novel I email the first draft to my Yahoo account, on the basis that I can pick it up any time, anywhere, if my PC explodes, my flat burns down or some other as yet unimagined catastrophe strikes.  Today I thought I'd go into that account and clear out the old versions, to free up memory space.  Turns out the whole thing has gone haywire.  First I couldn't delete anything, then, when I opened one of the emails, none of the attachments were even visible, let alone 'openable'.  Arrggghhh.  I've been trusting in this system for months and months - although I do periodically back up to disk (about once a month).  You can be sure from now on, I'll be backing up every time I do any work.  I've also emailed a copy to myself at work - and may print it off...belt, braces and buttons for me from now on.

Jay Mandal

What do Yahoo have to say on the subject?

Stirling

I've never been able to use attachments on Yahoo.

I applied for a job at Durham University library last year, and I was told they couldn't access the attachment to read my cv.  Of course by the time I check my account it was long past the closing date.

Joanne

Thanks for that timely reminder Hippo.  Normally I too copy my files to disk about once a month but you prompted me to check when I'd last saved anything.  I must have been so remiss lately because the last 8 stories I wrote were only on the hard drive.  I've been a good girl and just copied them all to disk. Hope you get your Yahoo sorted.

Jacey

I back up on floppy disc and CD after having both kind of discs "corrupt."

MonkeyNuts

My boyfriend is an IT whizz and he always tells me to back things up. I have to confess I brush it under the carpet most of the time but I know he means well and has a very good point! Think it may be time to start listening...
Glad everything worked out ok in the end though, Hippo! A close call! :-)

TaffetaPunk

Whenever I write anything, it's saved on my hard-drive and also on my trusty USB key (so easy, even I can use it).  That way, if anything's lost from my computer, I have a back-up copy, and a lot of my work is also on friends' computers for safe-keeping.  (And I know that unless I've said specifically that they can read what's in the files, they won't.)

*SA*

try signing up onto hotmail. i do the same thing that you do- send all my stories and my novel to my email, just in case. my lil bro built my computer for me, being the it whizz that he is, and said floppy disks are outdated, and outright refused to put one on there. so all of my back ups are done via email, or sent to my brother to burn it onto rw cds.

Neph

I wouldnt do that as I worry my account will be hacked and someone will either delete it all or pinch it.  So I back up most days to both my PDA (so I can work on it if Im out) and a memory stick, its so easy to back stuff up these days.  (Oh and they are also backed up to my external harddrive - just in case!!!).

Me paranoid, never :)

josiehenley

I dropped a floppy disk in a puddle once and lost a day’s worth of work on my novel – it was editing too so it wasn’t just a chunk that I could possibly remember and rewrite, but bits all the way through the damn thing. When I got my new laptop, I copied the whole of the contents of ‘my documents’ from my main PC onto it, so when my PC had an attack of blue-screen recently (it’s still in computer hospital now, v worried, thinking of sending flowers) I didn’t actually lose any work. My partner swears blind that she had no idea I did this and that I didn’t tell her at least three times that it would be a good idea if she did it as well. What can I say?

Butterfly

Hippo, if it helps I teach ICT at school and am always harping on to the children to save, save, save, and back up, back up, back up. Yes you guessed it I had a near miss recently, My computer began to smoke! flashed and stopped working. Thankfully no damage was done to the harddrive but it made me think. I now use two pen drives and cd's for each save. Over the top maybe, but I have the work saved and as safe as possible. One pen drive I take everywhere with me too. That way if something like flood/fire should destroy the rest I still have a copy. Oh and of course I have the hard copy.

diggorypress

^^ so glad its not just me then!!

Jay Mandal

Is that really you?

Hippo

Whew, Yahoo seems to have fixed itself - must have been a temporary glitch.  But I have decided to password protect any documents I send to myself in that way in future in view of some of the comments above.  Mind you, if anyone would like to nick my first draft, tidy it up and send it back to me, feel free...

Tessa Tangent

You lot saying all this and my recent experiences with AOL hijacking my line, I'm beginning to reminisce about my days with a simple typewriter and then the dear old Amstrad!