i’m completely and totally addicted to my computer. my email. my sites. i’ll be the first to admit that if you put me in a room with internet access, i’m going to check my email. my work email. my personal email. you name it, i’m checking it.
if i’m in bed watching tv, i have my laptop in my lap. when you write two websites and most of your job is done online, having a computer at all times is handy and also a necessity. and it legitimizes the fact that i’m now watching big brother 3 freakin’ times a week (oh, the shame…) and canadian idol twice a week.
so, imagine what i went through when the husband called me and said, ever so gently:
"Your laptop’s dead. blue screen."
what? what? what? I panicked. my pictures. my files. my downloads.
my book.
my book.
the book i’ve worked hours and hours on. the 250-page book. the YA fiction novel that centered around a school play and when it was first written 4 years ago was perfect, but ever since High School Musical hit the big screen, books about school plays are a dime a dozen. so, i had to revamp and rewrite. and write and write and write. and there was no longer a play.
and apparently, there was no longer a book. lost in the abyss.
and this, my friends, is when you learn a very valuable lesson. and you thought Fabulous was all about the entertainment and the funny things my kids say.
always back up your stuff. anything you would be lost without? back it up. it takes about 35 seconds of your time and will save you a lifetime of grief.
this story, thank the good lord, ends well. $100 later and i’m now back, lying in bed, watching last night’s Big Love, writing my sites, and working on my book. and you can be sure as shit that i’ll be backing it all up this evening.
Good to know I’m not the only one with this addiction…..and it isn’t even my job. Good to hear that all was saved.
So…THE BOOKS OKAY!?! The book’s okay…. Phew! The book’s okay. Man, that would SUCK! I say get a mac….
And, are you backing up your blogs? I s’ppose if anything major happened to the internet, we’d have bigger things to worry about than having backup for the blog…..
Is the USB drive the only way to back up ? I don’t back up anything ! But I really should….
Eek. Scary moment there. I too am an addict and I stopped breathing there for a moment until you told us the good news.
Good point by SciFiDad, but here’s a friendly reminder in addition to that. USB Flash Drives, if you’re going to use that as your backup, can be finicky too. Never Never Never Never EVER remove the USB drive without first right-clicking (From the right hand bottom corner, by the time, there will be a little green arrow if you are using pc) remove hardware. And then safely removing the device from your system. Otherwise, if you just yank the USB flashdrive without safely removing the device first, your computer could spark it and the flashdrive will be dead. I know you have an ipod, so you probably already know how to do this, but just a reminder!!! And with flash drives, you really should have two to back up to (just in case).
usb flash drives are so cheap now you should just put a 2GB in and work off of that, then you’re never victim to the BSOD (blue screen of death)