Well, one of the cardinal rules of using a computer is to back up information. I acting lazy did not back up the beginnings of my dissertation but thought I was being halfway diligent because it was on disk. Comes Sunday night....I decide to begin working on it again after a hiatus. I pick up the plastic disk from the top of the computer desk. In a fluke accident it slips from my fingers. I try to deftly catch it between my arm and my side in a move somewhat reminiscent of the chicken dance. Being graceful, I manage to crush the plastic disk, break off the metal guard and bend the disk inside. The good news is I was a mere 6 pages into a rather long journey and so have looked as this as an opportunity to start fresh creatively......only this time backing up my work on a separate disk. North
Wow, maybe you should jump up and down on it for good measure. Maybe your subconcious is trying to tell you something. Seriously though, if I were you I'd invest in a CD-RW and keep it on both your hard drive and CD. Of course I'd never think of actually following my own advice - a few weeks ago I lost a program that I'd been working on for a couple of days.
North, I suggest that you use this BB as a backup storage medium...post your work at least twice a day. As a side benefit, you'll get all the real-time review and criticism that you could ever hope for. (Degreeinfo admin.: no need to thank me for this suggestion; I bow to myself in all humility.)
North, When I first began working with computers (some six years ago), I once lost about 20 pages by accidentally hitting the wrong key. After climbing back down through the hole I made in the ceiling , I realized I had learned a valuable lesson. Fortunately, that has never happened again, as I now save about every 1/2 page I type. I once read of a guy who kept hard copies of his dissertation drafts in the refrigerator, fearing that his house may catch fire. As long as it doesn't take the place of my Eddy's Rocky Road ice cream its alright. Russell
Marina's good friend Ronna Kabatznick, for many years the chief psychologist for Weight Watchers, was compulsive about backing everything up. And when her house burned in the 1991 Berkeley Hills fire, there were (or had been) all her back-up disks, on the shelf in the garage. Now she backs up to one of the on-line internet sites (as well as the shelf in her new garage).
A couple of months ago, I lost 20 pages of work because I had it saved on a single floppy disk that ended up becoming damaged. Fortunately, I had recently printed out those 20 pages, and was able to scan them back into my computer. The process was a bit tricky, however, for I had already proofread these 20 pages. Thus, they were full of handwritten comments and corrections. After being scanned back into my computer, all of this handwritten material introduced a lot of jibberish into the newly-scanned version of my document. However, going back through and making the necessary corrections was a whole lot better and easier than starting from scratch would have been. By the way, this essay, which ended up being 40 1/2 pages, was my final essay before I commenced work on my thesis. So, fortunately, I learned my lesson before beginning my thesis.
