Keep Multiple Copies

I wrote a book from the middle of my 9^th grade year to the middle of my 10^th grade year.  It took me 9 months and I called it my baby for that reason alone.  It reached over 60,000 words.  I didn’t have a printer.  I didn’t take the time to retype it on a typewriter.  The document on my well-protected disk would be enough.  Yes, back then, all we had were 3.5" and the bigger floppy disks.  I managed to slip in a page here or there with my homework on the class printer.  My homework was also on a 3.5".

The disk was not enough.  I forgot my homework disk at home.  The teacher moved on to formatting on that fateful day.  She said we didn’t need the files we used for class, so I figured I could use the only disk I guarded with my life instead of admitting I messed up.  She also didn’t tell us the definition of formatting until after I lost my novel.

I started rewriting it based on the thirteen pages I managed to sneak to the printer.  Devastation is not a strong enough word.  This time I did it on a typewriter.  It’s not the same.  It’s not better.  In fact, I think its current incarnation is worse.  My hope is that one day I can afford to pay a company enough money to recover the original file.  The lack of floppy drives installed in new computers and the current recovery software out there has not been successful in recovering the file for me though I try each time I find a new one.  The FBI does it in child pornography and tax evasion cases, managing to pull the fragments of a file even though it has been written over and use the results in court.  If I can piece enough of the temp files with the original, I can put it back together.  I am not aware of a private company that holds that technology.  If you know of one, please contact me.

Since then, I invested in a printer.  I keep a copy on the computer.  I keep a physical copy.  Then I keep another copy on an external drive.  They are kept in different places for safety reasons.  It wouldn’t do for a fire to melt both drives and burn the pages.  This has been helpful, but does not protect me from losing information.

My next huge loss happened at work.  The piece that held my jump drive on my key ring broke, so I shoved it deep in my pocket.  That day, my relief ran late for work and I needed to leave.  In my aggravation, I did not pay as much attention as I needed to when I rushed into the bathroom stall to change into my concert gear.  I heard a strange noise, but ignored it.

Two days later, I tore my truck apart looking for the jump drive.  I thought back and figured it fell out of my work pants.  Company policy is that anything turned into lost and found must be kept for a week before being thrown or claimed by the finder.  I didn’t worry about it and waited until my next scheduled day.  The cleaning lady thought the jump drive was a security tag for clothing and threw it out.  I literally climbed into the dumpster – after having permission from the manager – and dug through all the trash.  At this truck stop, the restaurant, convenience store, and casino shared the dumpster.  It didn’t smell pretty.

After searching half of the mess, I found out they did an emergency pick up the day before.  My backup files were from two months before.  I spent three days retyping from the hard copies, but I lost a few chapters I didn't print.  The loss was minimal, but enough to drive me a little crazy.

Computers crash.  Hard drives go bad.  Papers fly away in the wind and you can’t catch them all before they end up in a road or in the water.  Shit happens.  Keep current copies and several of them.  When your primary version is lost or ruined beyond recovery, it's not as bad when you can pull out a back up copy and take a deep breath of relief.

Life teaches us lessons.  It's easier when we take preventive measures.  Trust me.