Hi everyone

My hard drive got corrupted today so all information on it is essentially gone. Luckily, I had backed all my files up in the last few days so it was a much smaller disaster than it potentially could have been. I have no access to a computer for the next week or so until the replacement hard disk arrives and my lovely boyfriend gets all technical and fixes things :-x
But aside from that, no harm done.
I just want to remind everyone to back up frequently and in several places as these things happen (a lot!!).

Ev x

Thanks Ev, I have just sat and copied every single thing from my USB stick to my home laptop after reading your post. I do copy things across anyway but was a bit behind with it...I now have everything on two USB sticks, my uni computer hard drive and my laptop! Thanks for the reminder! Best, KB

also guys, you should download mozy or drop box. that way you can share work between computers and it automatically saves it for you on both. (ev, I have had a similar disaster before, glad it's not been too much of a nightmarexx

maybe we should make it like thumbs up on Monday....(up)

I've just had a similar mini-computer panic. I just downloaded new anti-virus software and installed Google Chrome and lost my bookmarks temporarily! Half an hour of panic....but lovely hubbie sorted it!
I always e-mail my days work to myself at uni daily , as well as backing up on an external memory drive every few days and on my parents computer once a week. It feels like a bit of over-kill, but I have heard so many nightmares.

Hubbie mentioned that automatic software - it might be a good investment!

thanks ev, just backed up all my work from this week. I do back up every few months, but when you think of losing 10,000 words you wrote during one week, it would be so demoralising!

Thanks for the reminder - I go through phases of being really obsessive and then other times (usually when I am on a roll and actually achieving more when I forget.
I do get regular reminders though in that at least once a month an undergrad comes and asks for an extension because their laptop is broke, data stick corrupted etc etc

(Best one I heard was a couple of weeks ago when a third year told me he had left his laptop on the roof of his car and had driven 6 miles - needless to say it wasn't on the roof when he got home (but he did find it and apart from a broken screen it works fine) - he wasn't asking for an extension - just sharing how dumb he had been with the rest of the class)

Have to agree with Maria - use Dropbox. It is good for backup, syncing and sharing

I can't use any online storage stuff because my data is so sensitive :-( rubbish, because I work from about 5 computers - although one is SO secure you can't even open hotmail on it and you can't download ANY attachments without them going via an encryption/security team :-( hence why I work from home haha!