Okay, so I put the kids to bed last night, and then opened my laptop to a blank screen and a terrible, terrible "hmmmm-pop" that accompanied every attempt to restart. Long story short, my logic board was fried. I've spent the past 24 hours freaking out about losing the two AWESOME scenes from book five that I wrote AFTER I did my time machine backup in the morning, imagining the kids playing submarine with my backup drive in the bathtub, and wondering where in the family budget the cost of the new computer I just drove two hours to buy at the Nashua Apple store will fit.
However, about five minutes ago, the transfer completed and all my files--including the latest version of book five--survived.
Now I'm going to lie down.
I'll try to get the next pitch critique up within 24 hours, and I'll catch back up over the weekend. BTW, if you're in Boston this weekend, come find me at Arisia. I'm on a bunch of panels, including the Schools of The Future, the Broad Universe reading, the Speed-Writing Competition, and Sci-Fi Beyond Physics.
5 comments:
Oh no, that sucks!! Every time my laptop takes too long to start up, my heart stops and I start panicking.
I just purchased a new laptop myself. My old laptop died. It was very very old. I managed to get it up and running long enough to back up the files, just in case.
Now, I have multiple back ups in multiple locations. LOL
oooh i've been there. the other night i was trying to power on my laptop *which contains my entire life* and almost cried when it wouldn't turn on OR take a charge. finally, the laptop gods decided to take pity, but i'd never been so ready to hyperventilate before...
i'm glad that everything survived. at least you can rest easy now.
Do you upload files for backup? I don't do it nearly enough, but Google Docs and Think Free are both good options. For Windows users there's Automatic Backup Pro available for $30 and you can schedule back ups and/or do it automatically. For our Macs, we use Time Machine, which I think might be free. Of course, if you can't turn the computer on, that's cause for full-blown panic. But at least with a backup, you'll know where to tell that tech guy to recover the files. So glad you got everything sorted and didn't lose your work!
I was very, very lucky. I use mac (which also makes me lucky), and I'd backed up with time machine just HOURS before the crash. I used migration assistant to transfer everything, and--after a few anxious hours--my new mac had EVERYYTHING the old one did, right down to the saved password preferences for accessing things online.
Whew!
So, Bear's PSA of the Day: Back up your files!
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