Having discovered two copies of the novel-in-progress resident on the Machine, I deleted one and emptied the trash. It turned out I misread the date, and I now have a copy of the file as of Jan 10; nearly a month's work down the memory hole. There's supposed to be a resident back up somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. That will teach me to do such things at 11PM
The hard back-up from the auxiliary drive is the aforesaid Jan 10 copy; so it could have been worse: 4000 words instead of 48,000. It's supposed to back up automatically, but sometimes I forget to unlock the drive. Okay, a lot of time I forget to unlock the drive.
Perhaps rewriting from scratch will work out for the best; but I hate the idea of replicating all the en passant research on 1960s Milwaukee. I had renamed a character, and altered the chapter structure, brought the narrative up through Feb 1967. Read through on-line copies of the Milwaukee Journal to get the skinny on various background events. Found specifics on the various chansons de geste, including document numbers and repostitories. Ach, du lieber Zeit!
Yes, I know. I should have been more Christ-like. Jesus saves.
The OFloinn's random thoughts on science fiction, philosophy, statistical analysis, sundry miscellany, and the Untergang des Abendlandes
Reviews
A beautifully told story with colorful characters out of epic tradition, a tight and complex plot, and solid pacing. -- Booklist, starred review of On the Razor's Edge
Great writing, vivid scenarios, and thoughtful commentary ... the stories will linger after the last page is turned. -- Publisher's Weekly, on Captive Dreams
Great writing, vivid scenarios, and thoughtful commentary ... the stories will linger after the last page is turned. -- Publisher's Weekly, on Captive Dreams
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Whoa, What's This?
adam
amateur theology
anthropology
aphorisms
Aquinas
argument from motion
Aristotelianism
art
atheism
autumn of the modern ages
books
brains
breaking news
captive dreams
cartoon
charts
chieftain
clannafhloinn
comix
commentary
counterattack
crusades
culcha
dogheads
easton stuff
economics
eifelheim
evolution
factoids on parade
fake news
fallen angels
Feeders
fir trees in lungs
firestar
flicks
floods
flynncestry
flynnstuff
forecasts
forest of time
fun facts
gandersauce
gimlet eye
global warming
glvwg
headlines
henchmen
high frontier
history
home front
how to lie with statistics
humor
Hunters Moon
hush-hush
hypatia
in the house of submission
irish
Iron Shirts
irrationalism
january dancer
jihad
journeyman
kabuki
kool
letter
lion's mouth
lunacon
maps
mayerling
medieval
metrology
miscellany
modern mythology
moose zombies
music
new years
nexus
odds
odds and ends
paleofuture
passing of the modern age
philosophy
philosophy math
poetry
politics
potpourri
psyched out!
public service
quality
quiet sun
quote of the day
razor's edge
redefinition of marriage
religio
reviews
river of stars
scandal
science
science marches on
scientism
scrivening
shipwrecks of time
shroud
skiffy
skiffy in the news
skools
slipping masks
some people will believe anything
stats
stories
stranger things
the auld curmudgeon
the madness continues
the new fascism
the russians are coming
the spiral arm
the writing life
thomism
thought for the day
thread o' years
tofspot
topology
untergang des abendlandes
untergang des morgenlandes
up jim river
video clips
vignettes
war on science
we get letters
we're all gonna die
whimsy
words at play
wuv
xmas
you can't make this stuff up
Don't worry, someone will write an alternate history tale much like Haldeman's Hemingway Hoax when future generations wonder about the three time Hugo and Nebula award winning author's novel that was lost in a moment of haste. Perhaps The Flynn Folly?
ReplyDeleteI fill my hard drive with multiple copies of files as each increment becomes a new filename. Finding something on my system would require one of Vinge's programmer-archaeologists.
ReplyDeleteWith the cost of online backups often less than local backups (while being more reliable), they are worth considering.
ReplyDelete"There are 3 simple ways to recover your files from Carbonite:
1. If you accidentally delete a file or folder...
It will remain in your backup for 30 days before being deleted from our servers. During this time, you can recover it right from your desktop using the Carbonite application. It’s as easy as finding the file(s) or folder(s) in the list of backed up files and clicking "Restore.""
http://www.carbonite.com/en/home/online-backup-software/easy-to-use
It might be worth trying to recover the file first. There are several tools for doing that, these sites may help you out:
ReplyDeletehttp://lifehacker.com/393084/how-to-recover-deleted-files-with-free-software
http://recovery-review.com/
What @Ignorance said.
ReplyDeleteStop using the machine (which can generate new files, which can overwrite "spare" sectors of the disk which might contain fragments of your novel.
Try a recovery ASAP.
Best of luck.
(And this reminds me: I've made enough changes between v0.1 of my novel (Which is archived on a separate machine) and the current in-progress v0.2 that I should take steps to back it up.)
You're a good man for keeping a sense of humor about it, I felt your pain but laughed at the last line.
ReplyDeleteI'd second the recommendation for Carbonite, it's simple to use, automatic and fairly inexpensive. Your backup is saved "in the clouds" online so you'd be backed up even if your whole neighborhood went up in flames.