well, that was terrifying. let's do that again never.

[bedlamsbard]

And I was just about to not get a new computer, too.

My computer somehow just magically deleted four years worth of Narnia notes in my KeyNote file. Four. Years. Of. Notes. That's every ficbit I've ever written, every scrap of Narnian music and poetry, every cut scene (I never delete anything), every prompt I've ever gotten, every plot outline or note I've ever done, every character I've ever written, every infinitesimal piece of background knowledge I've come up with and been smart enough to write down, various non-Narnia stuff including my BSG reviews, my feedback on cupiscent's novel, plot and cut scenes from BSG and Star Wars fic, every tiny scrap I've ever written for the Warsverse, for the Petaverse, for Dust, for the Junior Pevensies, and for every crazy AU I've ever come up with (pirates, werewolves, Cas, Edwina, plus more).

I don't think I've ever come so close to throwing up on my computer, except maybe when I had to take it in to the shop in April. Thankfully I am, actually, backed up from April, when my computer almost died and I backed up everything I could get my hands on. Since I haven't written much since then, I'm pretty sure that's just the character notes from the last two chapters of Dust; I was putting in the character notes from the NFE when my computer froze about half an hour ago.

Yeah, I think I should go ahead and get a new computer.

I think I just saw my fannish life flash before my eyes.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

Owwwww. Glad to hear it's not too tragic.

[bedlamsbard]

My computer was giving me the October 2008 version. OCTOBER. 2008. Actually almost threw up. So glad I did back-ups in April. Trying to reconstruct my notes since then, which...is something, at least.

[pinesandmaples]

I have similar fears about losing all of my papers and research, thank you ancient laptop. My external hard drive is my new bestie, and we have a back-up date every Sunday afternoon because I cannot deal with losing it all. I know the feeling, though. It's a sick, woozy sort of world.

[bedlamsbard]

My computer was pretty badly on the fritz from April to about July, and then I thought it had repaired itself, and then...this. I guess I was getting a little too complacent about not backing stuff up. Hopefully the KeyNote file was the only thing to go and not my iTunes folder or my Pictures. (My documents appear to be okay, thank gods.)

Worst feeling ever.

[autumnia]

My computer (just a year old) did that to me about 6 months ago, deleting gigabytes of video files. I nearly had a heart attack. BUT I did manage to recover them with Pandora. It was also helpful when I accidentally deleted some WIP fics, so if you're not averse to installing more software on your computer, I recommend it (it was good enough that I sent them money even if it freeware).

[bedlamsbard]

Ooh, thanks for the rec.

[cupiscent]

Oh my gosh do I feel your panic. That's horrifying.

I use - and recommend - DropBox. It's a facility for sharing files between computers, and that's why I started using it (so I can work on things on my desktop, my laptop, and my work computer without having to email things to myself constantly), but it also works as an instant and constant back-up of files in the cloud, so it's not reliant on my flimsy hardware that could give out. (Of course, the DropBox servers could give out, or be hacked, or whatever, but since I run the program on three computers I use regularly, that means there are three back-ups of the files on computers I can access, no more than a week old.) I just sync my "writing" folder up in DropBox, which means all of my fic and roleplaying and novel stuff updates automagically.

[bedlamsbard]

It was one of the more terrifying experiences of my fannish life. *shudder*

DropBox is sounding better and better, seriously.