Thank You So Much Adultfanfiction

[TheBlackadder]

Hey Guys,

A couple weeks ago, one of those really nasty viruses flying around the internet planted itself on my computer and started downloading every other virus on the internet.

So, we had to wipe my harddrive without saving anything. I mean ANYTHING>

SO I went from roughly 148 short stories, long stories and such . . . .to the 13 I have uploaded to the site. 10 years of writing down the drain and into the abyss. Good God have mercy, I have been SO Depressed lately.

Now instead of writer block, I have writers fear. Which is way worse cause you don't even want to try

Oceans of Love, ~Marian~

[DemonGoddess]

Oh hell, I am so sorry to hear that Marian. Invest in a key drive, they're super cheap these days.

[Tempestuous]

Every writer's worst nightmare! That's terrible D:

It happened to me once. I was really down about it until I picked myself up and decided that I could look at this as a clean slate to start anew. I myself have an external hard drive which serves as my back-up in case anything goes wrong on my laptop. But a key drive is just as good, and I'd definitely advise it.

[WillowDarkling]

I'm so sorry, Blackadder.

I've never bothered with saving stuff anywhere other than the computer, and have lost a couple of years worth of work, for my novel, but I didn't care at the time.

But reading this... Like I said, I'm so sorry you lost all that work. I'm going to buy a key drive tomorrow when I get paid.

Your loss convinced me that the risk isn't worth it.

I'm so sorry... I'm getting all emotional over this.

[Satai Delenn]

OMG! Truly, as someone else said, that is every writer's worst nightmare! I've got so many stories and essays and, well, everything stored on my computer, and I do have a hard drive backup, but I don't use it nearly as often as I should. I guess this will frighten me into backing up my files more often!

Btw, what's a keydrive? Is it one of those stick things that stores files on it?

[marley_station]

OMG! Truly, as someone else said, that is every writer's worst nightmare! I've got so many stories and essays and, well, everything stored on my computer, and I do have a hard drive backup, but I don't use it nearly as often as I should. I guess this will frighten me into backing up my files more often!

Btw, what's a keydrive? Is it one of those stick things that stores files on it?

Yes. That is precisely what it is. They come in sizes to 64GB (I think) and I have never heard of one crapping out on anyone, so storing your fan fiction backup on one of those is a smart idea.

[DemonGoddess]

You do need to keep an eye on data integrity, and occasionally reformat the keydrive. Not very often, to be sure, but something that's a necessary maintenance. Just like we used to have to do in the "old days" with floppy discs.

[Satai Delenn]

Thanks Marley

You do need to keep an eye on data integrity, and occasionally reformat the keydrive. Not very often, to be sure, but something that's a necessary maintenance. Just like we used to have to do in the "old days" with floppy discs.

Um, lol, yeah..... Even though I have no place to use them anymore, I still have about 100 or so 3.5 Floppy discs, and about three or four 5.25 Floppy discs..... Of course, I still have three VCRs and about 200 VHS tapes, so I think it's safe to say, I'm not big on technology, lol.

Although, I don't recall ever reformatting discs unless I just wanted to wipe them clean of all data in order to store something else.

Edited June 26, 2010 by Satai Delenn

[DemonGoddess]

When your data starts to load not quite right, that's the storage device telling you it needs reformatted. I remember that very well from my floppy days . With the floppies, usually 2 or 3 reformats, and the thing was toast. Thankfully, key drives are much more durable and that's not an issue.

As with any removable storage, it does apply to the key drives as well, as I said. Just not as often.

[Voidmancer]

That sounds so terrible D: I wouldn't even know what to do afterwards if ever that had happened to me.

Maybe before you have your computer reformatted you can ask whoever's fixing it to do something to your hard drive called a partition. It divides your hard drive into two, creating a local space for Windows system to run and another half for your files. O: It's not fool proof, but a little safer.

You can also just archive (.zip, although it doesn't minimize the filesize at all .rar or even .7z is much better) your whole stuff and email them to yourself if they aren't too big. O:

Key drives are also useful but be wary about putting them in any other computer but your own, especially public ones. A lot of viruses can be transferred just because you popped it in another computer. I've had a virus in my key drive where all my folders turned into executable files (.exe) and it was a pain that I could only have gotten rid of by reformatting the whole thing and losing all my files. :|

Edited September 17, 2010 by Voidmancer

[mistress of yaoi]

this is why i write everything out on old fashion pej and paper first and if not i always print off copies of what i have written on my laptop or desktop computer. Stored in a folder, yeah its kinda sad but it stops things like this from happending.

Though goign back and reading some of my old stuff i'm like 'oh god thats right i use to write mary-sues'

[cu-kid9]

I had something similar to this happen to me--except it wasn't a virus, it was just my harddrive crashing and burning. I have an external harddrive, now, but another alternative to that or e-mailing your stories to yourself is Dropbox, an online storage site--I use it for everything I write. Files are stored there as soon as you save them and you can even share folders with people, which is great if you are or have a beta. I recommend this to anyone scared about losing work (I'm absolutely terrified of that happening again!).

[The Dead One]

Hey Guys,

A couple weeks ago, one of those really nasty viruses flying around the internet planted itself on my computer and started downloading every other virus on the internet.

So, we had to wipe my harddrive without saving anything. I mean ANYTHING>

SO I went from roughly 148 short stories, long stories and such . . . .to the 13 I have uploaded to the site. 10 years of writing down the drain and into the abyss. Good God have mercy, I have been SO Depressed lately.

Now instead of writer block, I have writers fear. Which is way worse cause you don't even want to try

Oceans of Love, ~Marian~

It happens to me way to often that's why I bought a cheap flash drive and back up my stories every few days. Sorry to hear though it always sucks and its a depressing thing.