I had a rather unpleasant experience a couple of weeks ago.
I’d driven up to my uncle’s lake cottage to do some writing and had just finished uploading a blog post a few days early. As a result, I was feeling somewhat upbeat and excited about getting ahead on an ever-mounting pile of work and what I would be able to accomplish the following day as a result.
Once I’d confirmed the post had been uploaded, I leaned forward to scoot my chair out from the table I was using as a makeshift desk.
That’s when it happened.
I inadvertently bumped the table and my jumbo-sized cup of ice water toppled over…directly onto my cell phone, and worse yet, the keyboard of my beloved MacBook Pro.
Time stood still. I went through that momentary phase of not wanting to acknowledge that such a thing was possible.
I’ve done all of my work on that computer for the past 4-5 years. I could hardly begin to comprehend what it would mean to lose it.
Thankfully, the documents that were most critical to my work were backed up because I use Dropbox and Google Docs. Unfortunately, some of my personal files were not.
As I continue to look into ways to repair my computer and recover what was lost, I’ve had to make do with borrowing time on family members’ computers.
I won’t trouble you with the myriad of issues that I’ve encountered trying to make my normal workflow a reality with hardware that’s not really up to the task. It’s hard to fathom how much your life can get tangled up with the fate of a little silver box.
As the resident newbie author here at WG2E, I’m sure most of you have had some sort of similar experience. How about it, WG2E peeps? Have you had something happen that disrupted your writing life so much that it made you want to scream?
I know that horrible feeling, David. I once lost a hard drive because of a virus. Thank goodness for Dropbox and Time Machine. Didn’t have those then, but I do now!
Also, in the “for what it’s worth” category: my son left his ipod touch in his jeans, which were on the way to the laundry. iPod was washed and dried before we realized it. After commiserating, we consulted the Internet and followed advice we found there as a last ditch effort: put it in a bag of rice and wait a week.
What do you know–it worked! He pulled it out yesterday, charged it, and everything was fine. Don’t know if it would work on a cell phone or Macbook….
Good luck with the data recovery.
Thanks, Sara.
Thank goodness for Dropbox and Time Machine.
I’m glad you were able to salvage the iPod.
Well, I guess it just goes to show you that drinking too much water can be bad for you.
(grin)
Seriously, the worst that happened to me was when an old computer of mine crashed and I lost an entire 90,000 word novel manuscript. I had no back-up copy and no way to open up the computer. My tech-medic told me I was doomed.
Fortunately, I had a hard copy printed off. So I wound up retyping the entire manuscript into the new computer. It was an interesting experience – but one I DO not wish to ever repeat.
Hi, Steve.
Wow! That’s a big one. Good thing you had that hard copy on hand.
My fingers are crossed–I’ve never had a computer go down on me (the one I crashed for my sister was different-it was hers and it was something like 1992). I back up regularly on external harddrives, and I upload stories to my Hotmail account for safe-keeping between my those back-ups. It’s not the best way, but it works for me.
I’ve heard of the rice in the bag solution. It’s worth giving a try.
Hi, Diane.
You have truly been lucky. I guess I had been also right up until the water incident.
I’ve heard the rice technique a lot also.
Wishi8bng
Hi, Diane.
You have truly been lucky. I guess I had been also right up until the water incident.
I’ve heard the rice technique a lot also.
Wishing you continued digital smooth sailing.
I guess, stories about loosing work related files, or family pictures, or a whole collection of pirated movies and songs (just kidding) due to accidents ,or just sudden hardware failure, are more common than we would want it to be.
Seven years ago my iBook suddenly and without a warning, died on me, it just stopped working, completely. My whole life was on it, including, three novellas and a collection of 3000 family photos. I took it to 3 different technicians and unfortunately, the verdict was the same from all 3. Unrecoverable data.
I learned a lot from that experience and now i use, Google Drive as well as a couple of flash discs just in case Google went bust
The dog ate my homework, still stands. Replace, dog, with hard drive.
Hi, Alex.
It sounds like you were in quite the pickle. There’s nothing like an experience such as that to cause you to evaluate the ways in which you save your important files.
Google going bust. Good one.
Thank the powers that be for back-ups, email, and thumb drives, right? I use all three of those for my work as well as Google Docs now too.
I’ve gone through three major computer “crashes” now, and yes, it’s a pain in the qwerty and requires a variety of four-letter words.
But…
Life is full of unexpected oopsy daisies. The secret is learning to thrive in spite of them.
One tip: When I have computer issues, I actually take a couple of days away from the screen and go back to paper and pen. Actually, I write that way a bunch. My muses seem to really enjoy that.
Thanks, D.D.!
Sounds like you are prepared for any eventuality.
I love the idea of going back to paper. I’ll have to see if my fingers even remember how to write manually. LOL.
Everyday that my husband does NOT go to work. I enjoy the 5 days a week he leaves the house and I get 9+ hours of writer-freedom. Today is NOT one of those days. There must be a project or two I can give him….
Hi, Nancy.
That sounds like a good plan.
Ergh! That’s horrible. But at least your important docs were backed up. My very first day on a new job, I spilled soda onto a keyboard, one of the expensive Mac ones. Luckily, I wasn’t fired, and I received a replacement fast. I don’t use Dropbox, but I do email myself important files occasionally. Hm. Perhaps I should look into it before I spill soda again!
Hi, Tamara!
Here’s to not getting fired. I would recommend looking into Dropbox. It’s a wonderful tool. You never know when something crazy is going to happen.
What to do when you spill liquid on your laptop? IMMEDIATELY flip it keyboard down while turning it off using the power button. Let it sit for a LONG TIME where it can dry completely before trying to restart. This is what my husband did when he inadvertently passed his open MacBook Pro under a motion sensitive water faucet. No guarantees, but the sooner you remove the water and stop the electrons from flowing, the better.
Hi, Jill.
Thanks. I’ve found all that out after the fact. I did power it down, but I didn’t know to turn it upside down. I turned it on its side and sat it in front of an a/c unit. Eventually, I removed the bottom panel and its been sitting in front of the a/c for almost two weeks now. I’m afraid to power it up at all. I’m going to take it in and see what, if anything, can be done.
I cracked the screen on my laptop last year to the point that it would not display at all. The computer part was still fine, so I hooked it up to a monitor while I got estimates for repair and compared to price of getting a new one. But OH THE HORROR! I’m always on the go with my laptop. I take it everywhere and write everywhere. To be tethered to a full-sized monitor was torture. I had to sit. In my chair. At my desk.
So not my work style.
Hi, Vickie.
That’s not a pretty one. How did that work out when you were traveling? Sounds like a real pain.
Just last week, my hard drive crashed. Big time. They were unable to save any of my documents. I have backed up everything but not since March. All of my new book was gone or would have been gone if I hadn’t sent it to a beta reader the week before. All the changes that I’d made to it in that week, and they were numerous around 5K were gone. Now everyone says “well you did it once you can do it again”. If only it were that easy. I pulled all the copies I could find out of our recycle bin and pieced together the changes. It was not an easy task but I know I had it easier than most. Now none of this would have been so critical but I had already set up a book tour and had to have the book out by the 31st of July. I made my deadline, but now I use dropbox to save my files.
Hi, Cynthia.
Holy cow. That is cringe-inducing. I’m glad you were able to power through and make it happen.
OMG, yes, I can completely sympathize! A few months ago I dropped my laptop and it conked out. I’d just finished a contribution to a marketing ebook, too, and hadn’t saved it to dropbox yet. When I realized that the hard drive couldn’t be saved, I then realized just how much I hadn’t put into dropbox or on an external hard drive. Yes, all my MS were on there, thank God, but some of my covers weren’t, along with other docs. Now, I’d recommend everything goes in dropbox, plus backup to an external hard drive, too.
Hi, Sibel.
That’s a scary one. I guess it takes a bad experience sometimes to remind us to be super vigilant about backing our data up.
I learned my backup lesson a very long time ago, when 4 MB’s of RAM was luxury and Gigabyte of anything was as attainable to me as having an office on Mars. When I got my first Dx4 100 IBM with that 4 MB’s of RAM, I thought I’d finally made it! It had a math co-processor, and the floppy drive 3.5″, not that big 5 1/4″ thing… Anyway,
Now I have briefcases on 4 different computers that back up the same files, just in case my external hard drive crashes, my flash drives get laundered (again), and my offsite (free) backup via Windows Live Mesh fails. I’ve felt that pain, and I ain’t messin’ around with it anymore!
Now, if I could keep Life from throwing monkey wrenches at me…
Cheers, David! Sorry about your sweet little QWERTY. I hope it gets better soon!
Thanks, Greg.
Judging by your level obsession with multiple backups, you must have been burnt in a big way somewhere in the past. I’m glad you’ve found a system that works for you.
I carry all my work on a very large flash drive. I use it on my mini lap top and on my desktop. I had put the flash drive in my pants pocket to take to work to probably turn the word doc into a pdf because my desktop won’t do it for some reason. Well, back home I had it in my hand, got sidetracked, thought I set it on the table and went about my business. When I went to use it late back in my laptop where I do most of my writing, I couldn’t find it. I was so upset thinking I had lost my entire life’s work, because I also had on there books I had started over 15 years ago back when IBM 8088s were the in computer (dating myself here, lol). Anyway, a week later I went to pick up my pants from a chair to wash and a good think I checked the pockets before washing (got into the habit with hubbie’s jeans because of his job) and there was the flash drive. So for a week I was without my writing. I do have dropbox but have not used it yet.
Hi, Jacqueline.
Multiple flash drives might be a good idea. I’ve actually put flash drives through the washer and dryer before. In my experience, they have all eventually worked despite the abuse. Best of luck!
As long as your hard drive has not melted then you should be able to take it out place it inside an external hard drive caddy/box/case and make it an external drive. Plug that into another Mac via the USB via and you will be able to get at all your documents as long as you know where they are.
Your computer may of died but that does not always mean you hard drive has. Hard drives are pretty tough and are encased in air tight cases so a bit of liquid won’t do anything as long as the electrics are clean.
Ian
Thanks, Ian.
I’m hoping the HD is going to be alright. Actually, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to continue using it if I can get the logic board, etc. replaced.
Oh God,
How horrible. I back up everything in the cloud by emailing it to myself and my techie guy. Another thing to watch when editing and work is flying back and forth it version control. Got myself in a right mess with my first novel especially with gmail’s message compression system – attachments are a bugger to find. So my editor and I set up a numbering/alphabet system which is working fine but not without the odd glitch even then. Editing introduces errors too.
I feel your pain.
Hi, CC.
It sounds like you’ve got a system that’s working for you. Wishing you continued success and no lost data.
I feel for you. The same thing happened in the middle of my first book launch. Luckily, I use a backup service, but it was a very inconvenient time for this to happen. When the pc shut down on me, I let it site for a few hours and prayed that it would work. It eventually did. Nothing like that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when the computer conks out.
Hi, Janice.
I’m glad your computer was able to pull through the water damage. Best of luck!
I’ve been there and ever since I have a portable drive (actually 2, since one is a backup).
Hi, LM.
It sounds like this is a more common occurring than I had realized. You have to love the external drive as a backup.
I spilled 7-Up on the keyboard of my HP. The keys stuck so bad they wouldn’t work. I took it in to Staples and they put my hard drive in a new laptop. My Son-I-L works for HP and he said, “If you have a problem. Most of the time we can take care of it.”
Hi, Stephanie.
Many of the horror stories I’ve heard have had to do with spills of carbonated beverages. I’ve heard that, if you dry the device out thoroughly, water damage can be overcome. However, I’ve heard that soda is usually a more serious thing because it dries sticky. It sounds like you came out smelling like a rose.
Oh…the pain. And I know that moment of frozen time where you just…can’t…quite…believe…what’s happened.
So far, I’ve avoided (but come close) to suffering from SDS (Spilled Drink Syndrome). Computer crashes and viruses have been my nemesis (nemeses?) in the past. Also, I came of age computer-wise back in the DOS days, when WordPerfect crashed every other document mid-paragraph. And so…I am now one of those neurotics who backs-up my backups!
I back up my laptop files to a flashdrive (which contains everything of value to me) as soon as I am finished with each work session. Then I copy the current backup files to my old desktop, which acts as a second backup. Once a year, I archive all the flashdrive files to a another flashdrive, which I keep in an old-fashioned, non-virtual safety deposit box. I have yet to use the “cloud” or “dropbox,” however I periodically email to myself the most recent draft of a novel-in-progress. Oh, and I keep the flashdrive in my back pocket at all times, just in case the house burns down while I’m out buying groceries.
I did say neurotic…
Even so, there are so many things resident on a computer that can’t (or don’t) get backed-up (like my hundreds of specialized autotext entries), that losing the entire computer would be hell anyway, even with my ridiculous amount of file saving!
Hi, Debbie.
It sounds like you are prepared for ANY eventuality. I have to be honest. I’ve never heard of anyone using a safety deposit box. That’s hard core.
I would have felt better if I droped a martini on my computor. I could make another martini in about a minute. And If I had a few before the accident, I’m sure I would have felt better about the little accident than if I hadn’t imbibed.
But to avoid a catastrophy, I back up everything (my writings) on an external hard drive and a small key ring backup drive.
Plus, right before Christmas, I heard my Dell desktop making funny grinding noises. I immediately thought — “Oh Spit!”
So I went on the web and purchased Carbonite. I think it was 59 bucks for the year. Two days later my computer crashed. I ran to Best Buy and bought another Dell. It took about a day for Carbonite to load my stuff from the old computer (with a day to spare), and another day to download it all onto my new Dell Computer.
The secret to avoiding these accidents is this: Never put any liquid on your computer table. I have two snacking tables; one to my right and one to my left. All liquids and foods go on these tables. If I spill anything, only the floor gets wet.
Oh, another tip; never put pens or pencils on your laptop while its open. My wife did this, and when I closed her computer, the screen cracked (the pen was hidden where the computer folds). Every day the crack got bigger and the screen got smaller.
I had to buy her a new computer even though the damaged one was only 6 months old.
Hi, Joe.
Sound advice all around. The funny thing is that I usually don’t have my drink anywhere near my computer, but it only takes one time. Good thing you purchased the Carbonite.
I am so freaky about this (having gone through a number of computers over the years, most failing on their own without my help), that I have TWO backups. The first is a 1-Terabyte portable USB hard drive, which I can always take with me, or use to backup the three computers in our house. I then back that up to “the cloud,” using MyOtherDrive. I would have opted for the commercial favorite, Carbonite, but at the time, they would only allow one computer per account, and MOD was cheaper. The plus with Carbonite, now that they allow more than one computer, is that it can be set to be automatic, so you don’t have to actually tell the computer to backup data. I know a lot of talk show hosts have special deals with Carbonite, so you can get a discount that way. I may switch this year, not sure.
I also got a ClickFree back up drive for my husband for the same reason – it works automatically, whereas I tell mine when and what to back up. The one thing I’m sure of now, is that I always have access to my data – and when I need to access it on the road, or exchange it with an author, etc., I can simply pull it down from “the cloud,” to whatever computer I’m on. That makes me sleep really well!
Hi, Janet.
It sounds like you are prepared for whatever comes down the pike. Best of luck!
Hi David,
I still remember the morning, probably over 2 years ago, when I plugged my flash drive into my computer and it didn’t light up. I went numb. I think I tried it about a hundred more times on about a hundred different computers, hoping for a different result! I lost a solid start on a novel that I was very excited about. To this day I haven’t returned to it. I hope to, but I can’t help remembering the sinking feeling when I discovered the flash drive was fried.
Long story short: I feel your pain!
Thanks, Diane.
I know that sinking feeling well. I hope you’ll be able to return to that novel someday.
I have lost a laptop and a hard drive in the past and now I keep everything I need on an external drive. I save all files to it. I was lucky to be able to hook up an old hard drive as a secondary drive and still access it. I got my Itunes back, family pictures, even an old family website from 2003 that I had written (badly) in HTML. But I did it, so I love it. I have all those files now on my external drive.
I recently lost my desktop from overheating. A power surge knocked it out. I unplugged my external drive and worked on the laptop I’d had repaired, easy peasy. Since I’d been saving all my stuff on the external, all I lost were some Sims 2 games that I hadn’t backed up in a while. What I didn’t like was paying $60 to get the desktop fixed (fan replaced, Windows reinstalled), get it home, and have it give an error message on bootup. And now the guy won’t return my calls
He’s only a cousin-in-law, though, I’m not obligated to keep using him.
My external drive was acting wonky a few days ago. I realized it wasn’t the drive, it was the mini USB cord. The cat was laying on it and bent the wire, so it worked intermittently. Replaced the cord and it was good to go.
The laptop has been through a lot. A screen repair (warranty), replacement power cord, new hard drive, new keyboard. The cat knocked over a vase on my computer desk and spilled water into the keyboard. Couldn’t turn it over because I didn’t see it for a few hours. Now, no water or drinks anywhere near the computer. Maybe I should say no cat near the computer either.