Monday, January 23, 2012

A backup plan...

I thought I was in real trouble this weekend, when my thumb drive went missing.

It has important stuff on it. Not only my current WIPs, fan fiction and original fiction, but my password list, my QuickBooks backups, and my electronic check register. And a few other random things.

I retraced my steps, dug through the sofas and the trash, looked under beds, nightstands, sofas. Dug through the dirty laundry. Dug through my purse three times. (Now, my purse isn't that big, so the second and third looks really were futile.) I looked in the cabinets and in the fridge. All to no avail.

Well, I wanted to write yesterday and I knew a friend was going to be doing writing sprints and I work really well with the sprints. BUT I had nothing at home to work on, what with my thumb drive missing and everything else residing at the office on the server.

So I started something new. I've had an idea that pops into my head every now and again, so I grabbed a hold of it and got busy. By the end of the day (5:30ish), I had written 2296 new words on an idea I pulled out of my ear and had clean laundry and swept floors and a clean bathroom to boot.

Well, I found the thumb drive this morning. As I was creeping around in the dark of my bedroom, gathering my stuff while hubby slept, I picked up my cell phone and slipped it into my pocket. Lo and behold, that triggered a remembrance. Yesterday, when I got up, I put on my bathrobe--which I was no longer wearing when I was in search of the thumb drive--and which has pockets! So I dug in the pockets of my bathrobe, finding a cough drop in one and--YES-- the thumb drive in the other. Whew.

So today, I move the password file someplace else, 'cause losing that would be terribly bad. And I decide whether to use a web-based file hosting service. Then my stories are always available as long as I have Internet access. I do have a Google Docs account, but it's been acting up on my laptop, though that's probably because I haven't update my browser in so long. Or perhaps I just e-mail whatever I'm working on to myself on a daily basis. I don't know, but I need a different method. It sucked not having my stuff and it sucked worrying that I'd lost certain things forever.

2 comments:

mtnchild said...

Glad you found your thumb drive! Have you thought of the "Cloud" drive - $59 a yr ... just a thought.

Nancy left yesterday with everything ... 2 large U-Haul trucks and a trailer behind one of them ... I will take a bit of time off to relax but will be going over to wipe down the house and remove the last of the packing stuff from the house.

We now have about 5-6 inches of snow on the ground, but Dale will take what can be seen and dug for a bit, but the rest will be left for the spring. There is also stuff in sheds, so we can remove that too ... Phew! This will now be done at our leisure, not in a mad rush except for the cold!

Love you,
Mom

Jen FitzGerald said...

I;m glad you finally get to take a breather.

SNOW?? Of course, you;re probably used to more than that by now, no?