Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Are Your Backups Working? by Andy Scheer

This past week I've been straightening my office. Not just around my desk, but also where I keep most of my work: my computers.

I've deleted unwanted programs, sorted files into project folders, and – most important – backed up key documents onto high-capacity flash drives and an external hard drive. I thought I was covered.

This week I've also made big changes to my website. Many hours worth. I'd hate to lose them. So I opened the administrator's toolbar, selected “online backup,” and clicked all the settings to ensure daily backups.

Or so I thought.

This morning, having made another big update, I visited the “online backup” section again. Just in case.

Good thing I did. For multiple consecutive days, the automatic backups I've been counting on had failed.

Fortunately, I discovered the problem before a crash – and made some backups manually.

If you've been in the writing business awhile, you know the horror stories of people who've lost key documents. Now they tell others to install a system for automatic backups.

Good idea. Just check if those backups work.

3 comments:

Davalyn Spencer said...

A warning well worth heeding! I've not thought much about backing up my website. Need to look into that. But I save my WIPs and also email them to myself. That way if the house burns down, I can still get them. Ugh - what an unpleasant contingency.

Andy Scheer, Hartline Literary said...

I'd not thought much about it either, until my discovery.

Meanwhile, I've know of writers losing their work through a house fire, through burglars taking computers, and failed automatic data backup systems.

If it can go wrong ...

Linda Glaz said...

I find out when the computer crashes. UGH