V.A. Editing

Have you ever lost all the data on your computer? I really hope the answer is no, as this can be a devastating situation.

There are many ways that your computer can fail you, get damaged, or even stolen. Whatever the situation, if your precious notes and manuscripts are only stored on that one device then they are lost to you forever (cue dramatic music).

The obvious solution is to have your data backed up somewhere safe. But the question remains as to how often you should do those backups.

If you work in an organisation where the IT department automatically creates backups, and your documents are stored within that system, then you probably don’t need to worry so much. However, if you are an indie author or freelancer then the onus is on you to decide on your own backup methods and schedule.

Personally, I have several backups of folders such as my digital library of reference books, and important personal documents. Because I don’t edit the actual content of these documents, I am much more relaxed about updating the backups. If I am honest, I only update them about twice a year, just to account for anything that I have recently added to my library.

However, when it comes to the active documents that I am currently working on, I am much more disciplined with backing up, especially regarding work for clients. If I have just spent the whole day editing a document, I am absolutely going to back it up before closing down my laptop; because, if anything goes wrong with it, I don’t want to have to re-do an entire day’s work.

To summarise, I would suggest backing up those important working docs much more regularly than those unchanging reference docs.

An important point about backing up files is to have a clear system for labelling folders and documents. I tend to copy the desired folder or file into my backup destination and then add a note to the file name to make it clear that this is a backup, including the date it was created.

So, if you haven’t done it recently, why not go ahead and do a cheeky little backup now? You’ll be thankful for it if the cat accidentally knocks your coffee onto your laptop.

Also, if you are wondering what the best options are for where to back up your work, you might find this article useful.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!