On Backups, the Cloud and a Fresh Start

My very first computer was the 1996, Performa II Macintosh. It was a beige system 7 computer with I believe roughly 512 mb of hard drive space (which I’m sure was quite a bit of space at the time, but would be unthinkable today). In 2002 I began writing my first story which began on that very same Performa II. In those days, I had no idea what cmd+z was, nor did I have any idea what backing up your computer meant and cloud storage wasn’t really even a thing. I was midway through writing one of my first stories when I decided (as I sometimes do) to change the font. I had selected the entirety of the story (probably only a few dozen pages, but still enough to be devastating) and somewhere in trying to change the font, I deleted everything. I was devastated, and having no idea how to get it back, I was a little furious too. This was my first lesson in backing up. Though it was not until 2003, and our Windows XP adventure that I really started to attempt to back up my work. It would take quite a few years still (and a number of lost manuscripts) before I did so regularly.

Now, I make it a habit to backup my work as often as possible, and thanks to several cloud accounts, I can backup without even having to have an external hard drive on hand (though I like to do a hard backup at least twice a month). I’ve learned many times (often the hard way) about losing my work, and now with both my design work, and my novels, I really try and be more careful than ever with making sure to back up in multiple places, and often. I often hear horror stories from fellow students about losing half of their work or their computer crashing during their final quarter or working on their final Portfolio. It’s a devastating thought, but a stark reminder about just how important it is to back up all of your work.

That said… sometimes a fresh start is necessary, not as in, deleting your entire manuscript or purposely losing everything, but backing up, and starting fresh. By which I mean, completely erasing your hard drive and starting from scratch. There’s something about a system restore, setting your computer to like factory new that always has a certain appeal. I think it’s one of those things that’s probably necessary every year or every other year of having a computer because it completely wipes the slate clean. Whatever gunk has been mucking up your operating system is all wiped clean. It’s a fresh start, and in a way it’s almost like having a new computer without having to go out and buy a brand new computer.

What about you? How often do you backup your work, and how often do you think you should refresh your computer?