Ah hell..

[kingaling]

Within the last year I had 20 different files on my computer that held all the information for the book series a friend and I are collaborating on. everything from species, to plotline's/twists/bunnies, clothing, equipment, story outlines and languages.

then, my computer got sick. very sick. and in a rush to save my beloved stories I popped in various discs and loaded them on, being careful to make sure they were actually on them.

I did a system reconfiguration. and when my comp was restarted, I popped in my first disc. no information..the next disc...no info...as for the rest of the discs..nothing as well. 7 different discs..none of them had anything AT ALL on them. *head explodes*


I suppose my short question would be..how do I go about recreating EVERYTHING?

and before people start saying things, I had a lot written down in a notebook..but not nearly enough. and I did have backup folders on the comp..but they don't do you any good when the comps crashing.

HELP! I'm in a bit of a depressive state (as well I should be, i believe)

thanks

[Shecky]

I can offer nothing but sympathy and the hope that this has driven home the need for multiple copies of important material kept in multiple media in multiple locations (my most important stuff is on the hard drives of my computer, my wife's computer and my work computer, on one of the servers at work and on CD - at worst, if there's something I'm working on over time, I might lose my most recent work).

Try looking at it this way: this affords you the chance to redo everything the way you NOW know it should be. In reconstructing your materials, you'll have the opportunity to see them with hindsight and "fix" them. Lots of work, true, but it should be quicker than the original work and ultimately more satisfying.

[3by2]

so you deleted everything that was on the computer?

[kingaling]

so you deleted everything that was on the computer?

i had to do a system reconfig so the comp could work, so yes. i sort of deleted the copies that were the back ups..but I put the originals to burn to CD, and none of them stuck even though my CD writer said they had been.

[Fade]

try the cds on a different comp?

(might not be reading the cds..)

[blgarver]

Oh man.  Just hearing that makes me sick to my stomach.  I've lost things like that before.  Luckily it was none of my writing, just some of my short films from college. 

It sounds like you guys have all the info in your head anyway, if you've been toiling over the thing so much.  Sounds like it's just going to take some old fashioned elbow grease and several pots of coffee.  Try not to let the blues get ahold of you.  Just sit down and get it back to paper, if you need it that much.  Try not to dwell on how much work was put into it.  After all, it's not really lost, becuase now it's all worked out and all you have to do is write it down again.

It may even come out more organized than you had it before, and offer a fresh eye so you might come up with some ideas to add or modify, or whatever.

I have my writing folder on my laptop, which is my workhorse for writing, and then I have copies on two different flash drives, and one on my computer at home.  I updtae the copies every time I write something new.  The only problem is that the flash drives can be kind of tricky to keep track of.

Wish you the best!  Good luck!

BLG

[Ren]

From a Tech Support Employee (me):
Question is, did you reformat and reisntall the entire OS? Even if you did there is always a chance at Data recovery, but you'll have to take it to a Data Recovery company like Drive-savers or Ontrac (Both have very good reputaitons), but it won't be cheap. But if You can't remember things like me it may be the way to go if you dont want to lose 7 years worth of work. With a single small disk it might not be so bad privce-wise, but I'm used to dealing with folks with multi-drive RAID Array with several hundred Gigs of valuable data so take that as you will. You can always ask them for a rough quote.
May want to take it to a local shop first though, preferably someone with a good reputation, and see if they can do anything to help you recoveer that Data. I thought I had lost all of MINE even after backign up to an external drive, but was able to get it recovered.
Hope this gives you some hope and ideas...

[SunPhoenix]

I'm scared... (saves everything he has to E-mail)

[Helen™]

I'm scared... (saves everything he has to E-mail)

My daughter saves everything to a flash drive.  She leaves it in the computer while she's writing her stories and saves periodically.  That way if the unthinkable happens and we lose everything, she has all of her stuff saved.  The flash drives really aren't that expensive.  I got her a 2G drive for twenty dollars.

[Josh]

I've got a six gig usb drive that I use to backup all my documents weekly. I started doing this after a similar situation struck my computer out of the blue and wiped out several weeks worth of writing. It always wrenches the gut when that happens. The only thing one can do though is hope that stuff is stuck in the subconscious, and that when you produce it the second time around, it'll be improved...maybe a little refined.

[SunPhoenix]

My daughter saves everything to a flash drive.  She leaves it in the computer while she's writing her stories and saves periodically.  That way if the unthinkable happens and we lose everything, she has all of her stuff saved.  The flash drives really aren't that expensive.  I got her a 2G drive for twenty dollars.

Would work for me if I had 20$.

[Helen™]

Would work for me if I had 20$.

You know, Santa is coming.  Ask for a flash drive.  Target periodically has great sales on flash drives.  You could even get a 1G for about nine dollars.  If all you use them for is your writing, it'll hold an amazing amount of data.

[kingaling]

those are some great ideas. Where, though, should I start building? character bio's?

[Torvaldr]

Been there. I now have multiple copies in multiple formats. I have the files on two separate computers. On a flash drive. On a CD. And at least one hard copy of everything.

Yep, been the data recovery route too. The cost of which made my hair stand on end and convinced me that redundancy is a very good thing!

[Lisa™]

You know, Santa is coming.  Ask for a flash drive.  Target periodically has great sales on flash drives.  You could even get a 1G for about nine dollars.  If all you use them for is your writing, it'll hold an amazing amount of data.

Y'know, this sounds like a smart plan.  I've been writing something for National Novel Writing Month that's turned into a bit of a jewel.  It's the first real pet project I've committed to in a while, so the thought of losing it makes me shiver.  Flash drive... gotcha.