Always Back Up Your Files!

I know, this seems like a No shit, Sherlock moment. I mean, duh! Of course you back up your files! But it’s not always that obvious. In fact, it’s easy to fall into the trap of not doubling your files.

 

Here’s where I got snared. As a newbie writer, I was always a good little backer-upper. Then I got hacked, and I had to pay Microsoft a big chunk of money to take the virus out. Then I was hacked again about five years later, and rinse and repeat with Microsoft. This got me thinking: if they’ve hacked me, they’ve got all my files of the novels and screenplays I’ve written in My Documents. Therefore, I quit putting them into My Documents and began backing up my files on my old desktop computer (which doesn’t have the Internet), as well as on a flash drive. This is where I shot myself in the foot.

 

Then I got sick of having to tear down my laptop and then fire up my desktop at the end of each workday, and quit doing it. I mean, bad stuff like losing novels and screenplays only happens to other people, right? That’s where I cut my throat.

 

Someone broke into my apartment and stole my newest flash drive, which contained my new novel and the new screenplay I’d just started. I didn’t have the novel backed up anywhere else, which actually isn’t my fault: I did back up that one up on my desktop, but that piece of shit failed me and only contained the prologue when I searched it for my novel. As far as the new screenplay, I’d barely started it, so it’s not too much trouble to start over again; the novel’s another story, however. I spent the whole month of November writing that thing, and I’m not writing it again.

 

In short, ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR FILES ON MY DOCUMENTS AND A FLASH DRIVE–OR DVD DRIVE, OR A FLOPPY A DRIVE FOR THAT MATTER. Point being, you can take the portable drives with you in case of a fire, and you’ve got your My Documents files if your flash drive gets stolen.

 

Let’s be honest, I’m not a Rhodes scholar. I write horrorbooks. Don’t be stupid and get fucked like me! Location, location, location: My Documents and a flash drive.