A Writer’s Nightmare
Have you ever dreamed that you opened up Microsoft Word and all of your documents were gone? That happened to me and it wasn’t a dream. It was a real-life writer’s nightmare.
I didn’t panic because I knew I had backed up my files to an external hard drive recently. I had also saved my two works in progress to Dropbox and emailed the files to myself so I was covered. Still, I worried. I’ve had external hard drives become corrupted in the past. Would I be able to access my files from my external hard drive? I’ve also had a work computer crash on me once before and lost all of my data.
How It Happened
Over the weekend I had installed a Dell update to my computer. I woke up Sunday morning and found there was no way visible for me to turn on or off my internet. And when I tried to shut down my computer there was no on or off key either. I had to power off using the on button.
I spent over an hour that afternoon with a technical support person who informed me that my user log-in had been corrupted so I needed to set up a new user. He did this for me, supposedly transferring all the information from my original user to the new one. This took another hour.
Monday morning, I woke up to my real-life, writer’s nightmare. I uploaded my saved files from my external hard drive, but found it difficult to find the files on my computer. Again I called Dell tech support. Another hour of my life was spent while tech support located my files and made sure they were accessible on my computer under the new user.
Moral of the Story
The moral of the story? Avoid a writer’s nightmare. Always back up your files!!! And not just to an external hard drive. So that when this nightmare happens to you, you will be prepared.
Technology is great when it works, a nightmare when it doesn’t! May all your dreams be sweet.
What about you? What’s your most feared nightmare?
**********************************
Also, be sure to periodically back-up your website, particularly before updating any plug-ins (no, not the Glade kind). If you are looking for a host for your website, my web host is A2hosting. I’m able to easily back-up my website, the customer service is exceptional and the price is right. To top it off, they are having a boxing day sale – the day after Christmas. Click on this affiliate link on Dec. 26 and get your deals.
Leave a Reply