By Mark W. Danielson
Ever lose a computer document? I have, and there’s nothing more frustrating. Computers pretend to be our friends, but only with a snake’s emotion. They obey because they have to, then out of the blue, self-destruct. Suddenly, your masterpiece and your sanity vanish. To prevent this, I offer these pearls:
First and foremost, whenever you begin a document, save it. That should start with the document’s title. From there on, constantly save the document. Write a paragraph, hit Save. Write another paragraph, hit Save again. Repeat this pattern until you type, “The End.” Of course, none of this matters if your computer crashes. That’s why you need external backups.
External hard drives are great, but they’re not always automatic. Ideally, you should buy an external hard drive that’s big enough to hold all of your computer’s documents and photos. That way, if your computer crashes you can re-load all your stored data onto your replacement computer or hard drive. These days, a 500 GB external hard drive costs around a hundred bucks. Lose one manuscript in a computer crash and you’ll wonder why you never bought one.
Flash drives are equally wonderful, and the cost keeps coming down. I just purchased a 16 GB
Toshiba flash drive for 40 bucks at Office Max. That’s a lot of memory in a two inch accessory. Plug it into the USB and you’re set.
The problem with computers is they have a limited number of USB ports, so if your printer and external mouse are plugged into a two-port laptop, there isn’t room for an external hard drive or flash drive. Now, you must sacrifice the mouse or a printer to save your work. Interestingly, as much as people hate mice in their houses, it’s the printer that usually goes. Anything for a back-up, right?
But let’s say you’re on the road or you can’t find your flash drive and you still want to back things up. That’s easy, too. Just e-mail it to yourself and it will be there whenever you need it.
Now here’s the thing -- I wrote this in Word without any external back-up plugged in. Why? Because I was too lazy, even though my external hard drive and flash drives are sitting in front of me. I’ll be doing that real soon, though. Sound familiar? Thought so. Be forewarned, computer crashes happen, and the price of external memory has never been cheaper. The cost of losing one’s sanity? Immeasurable. The excuse for losing one's memory? There is none.
First and foremost, whenever you begin a document, save it. That should start with the document’s title. From there on, constantly save the document. Write a paragraph, hit Save. Write another paragraph, hit Save again. Repeat this pattern until you type, “The End.” Of course, none of this matters if your computer crashes. That’s why you need external backups.
External hard drives are great, but they’re not always automatic. Ideally, you should buy an external hard drive that’s big enough to hold all of your computer’s documents and photos. That way, if your computer crashes you can re-load all your stored data onto your replacement computer or hard drive. These days, a 500 GB external hard drive costs around a hundred bucks. Lose one manuscript in a computer crash and you’ll wonder why you never bought one.Flash drives are equally wonderful, and the cost keeps coming down. I just purchased a 16 GB
Toshiba flash drive for 40 bucks at Office Max. That’s a lot of memory in a two inch accessory. Plug it into the USB and you’re set.The problem with computers is they have a limited number of USB ports, so if your printer and external mouse are plugged into a two-port laptop, there isn’t room for an external hard drive or flash drive. Now, you must sacrifice the mouse or a printer to save your work. Interestingly, as much as people hate mice in their houses, it’s the printer that usually goes. Anything for a back-up, right?
But let’s say you’re on the road or you can’t find your flash drive and you still want to back things up. That’s easy, too. Just e-mail it to yourself and it will be there whenever you need it.Now here’s the thing -- I wrote this in Word without any external back-up plugged in. Why? Because I was too lazy, even though my external hard drive and flash drives are sitting in front of me. I’ll be doing that real soon, though. Sound familiar? Thought so. Be forewarned, computer crashes happen, and the price of external memory has never been cheaper. The cost of losing one’s sanity? Immeasurable. The excuse for losing one's memory? There is none.
