I’ve just gone through a major emotional event – no, nothing serious, just the realisation that I may have deleted one of my eBooks and one of my reports that I wrote back in November 2009 as part of my 50k eBook challenge!
I can tell what you’re probably thinking already – if you’re going to set yourself a challenge to write 50,000 words in one month then you’re definitely backing it up, aren’t you?!
To be honest with you, backing up is on my ‘to-do’ list. Why? I don’t want to backup all of the junk and stupidly disorganised files I have here on my computer. I want to back up a nice organised system, free of clutter, and with all my files in the folders I expect them to be.
Next Time I Won’t Be So Lucky
Back to the report (and eBook) in question. If you didn’t already know, I wrote 4 eBooks and 3 reports back in November as a way to challenge myself and stop procrastinating (I also wrote a free guide for you to download full of tips, if you’re interested). Slowly, I’ve been proofreading what I wrote and putting it all to use.
The other day, my job was to get out a report I wrote to use as an opt-in freebie for a new PLR site I’m launching. But, to my surprise, when I opened the ‘November eBook Challenge’ folder, my PLR report was nowhere to be seen. In fact, 14,000 words worth of my 50,000 challenge were missing!
Hours of searching later and I found it in an obscure file (my archives for client articles and reports) and with an obscure name. I literally went through each and every one of my .doc files to get to it. But thank goodness it was there.
Backup!!
The point is I was lucky. It just so happens I’d been having a proper clearout of all my junk the day before – and I could easily have deleted the file with such an obscure file name. What have I been doing all this time?! It’s time to backup.
- If you set yourself any kind of eBook/writing challenge, use something like Dropbox to backup as you go,
- If you run a blog, use an automatic plugin such as WP-backup to send you weekly database backups,
- Make use of your hosting to backup your blog’s plugins and wp-content folder,
- Backup all of your internet browser bookmarks,
- Name your files in some way that makes sense!
- Don’t accidentally backup the wrong way round (i.e. overwrite the old version of your file from the backup location over the new version sitting on your computer – yes I have done this and yes I was very annoyed and tears may even have been shed – it was very important!)
PS. I apologise for the lack of a creative post today, I’m not feeling 100%, but at least if any of you are as silly as I am this may just force you to start looking after your work!
~ Web Career Girl
Forest (4)
Kidgas (4)
Loren Jaslyn (4)
Des @ Affiliate P... (3)
Eric (3)
Twitter: lbogaerts
Says:
January 21st, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Ruth, I’m glad you found your report again. I guess it’s time that I check if I have a back up for everything. I know I do for my blogs, but for the rest I just rely on hope I guess LOL I’ve been thinking of getting me an external harddrive for back up purposes. Maybe it’s time to get out and buy one, you never know.
Twitter: webcareergirl
Says:
January 21st, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Leslie – I got a nice external harddrive but it didn’t even inspire me to properly backup! I’m doing it now though. Got backups of all the sites I’ve flipped too. That’s probably a little *too* cautious but can’t hurb
Twitter: Kidgas
Says:
January 21st, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Wow. I am also glad that you were able to find it. I can’t imagine losing hours upon hours worth of work. I have been lucky in that I have never had a hard drive crash and have been able to move important files from computer to computer when I upgrade. I guess it does make you think about what can go wrong.
Twitter: webcareergirl
Says:
January 21st, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Kidgas – I have had terrible computers but luckily always been able to access my files too. It is usually human error that has caused me to lose stuff :S
January 21st, 2010 at 3:33 pm
I’d recommend Drop box – I haven’t had to even think about backups since I started using it.
January 21st, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Just today I was forced into downloading it, I guess I’ll have a look around. lol
Twitter: webcareergirl
Says:
January 21st, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Mike CJ – Ah yes I mentioned Dropbox briefly at the end there. Silly me, though, I have it and use it but only for my client work folder. I think I need to give my own work the same importance lol!
Twitter: hanjicode
Says:
January 21st, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Yep.. backing up is pretty critical. Don’t forget to backup your live sites and data too. I’ve been burned with that in the past. I know hosting companies will say they back stuff up, but like I’ve said, I’ve been burnt on this. So now, I always back up all my local files as well as all my live site/data files as well.
I like the plugin idea to mail you updates. I would recommend automysqlbackup to run on the hosting site, then use something to pull everything down (via FTP, SCP, etc)
Good luck.. and glad you were able to recover those files. Nice post!
hanji
hanji – money-code´s last blog ..Simple modification to FD Feedburner Plugin
Twitter: webcareergirl
Says:
January 21st, 2010 at 9:20 pm
Hanji – I can understand why you wouldn’t trust your host, I don’t either. Though I am not as organized at backup up my hosting as I should. Setting up automatic backups of the folders is next on my list, thanks!
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Your host is one of your best assets and worst liabilities, if you don’t trust them, switch hosts. Today. Now.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Blog Move Is Imminent ! I’m Looking For Launch Partners…
Twitter: webcareergirl
Says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:29 pm
I trust my host – but I don’t trust anyone where backups are concerned!!
January 21st, 2010 at 6:50 pm
I guess you could call my recent issue somewhat the opposite. I religiously used the back-up plugin daily…then when I needed it, I realize I didn’t know how to properly upload and reinstall everything! LOL
Nice place Ruth, I followed you from Simon’s place and have subscribed to see what else ya got.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Blog Move Is Imminent ! I’m Looking For Launch Partners…
Twitter: webcareergirl
Says:
January 21st, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Dennis – Oh that’s not good, I hope you managed to figure things out! but those things can really eat away at your time! Thanks for coming over from Simon’s, look forward to seeing your blog too after you’ve moved.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:25 pm
I just contacted my host who is Johnny on the spot, lol. Cost me $15, but was up and running in minutes.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Blog Move Is Imminent ! I’m Looking For Launch Partners…
Twitter: ShaneRQR
Says:
January 21st, 2010 at 11:18 pm
I agree, backing up is extremely improtant. Anything I don’t want to lose I always have saved in at least three different places (call me paranoid!).
I also just recently got an Amazon S3 account and am looking into setting up an auto-backup system for my essential files. Knowing that my stuff is on a safe server far, far away from here gives me peace of mind, because not even an event like fire or water damage can harm my data that way.
Cheers,
Shane
Shane´s last blog ..Interview with List-Building Virtuoso Jonathan Gunson
Twitter: webcareergirl
Says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Shane – I know what you mean, it’s good to have it in a different place. Because even when I backup to my external hard drive it’s still here in the same place as my laptop.
Twitter: goldenkoi
Says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:09 am
Oooh… that is scary. I am so glad that all ended up well but that certainly is a major message.
I totally understand the desire to backup neatly organized files etc…. and the “obscure” files that lurk in our computers. It seems I am an overachiever when it comes to these and waste countless hours trying to find something that I just know is somewhere in my computer (and doggie does not seem to do a particularly good job
best………..valentina
Valentina´s last blog ..Five Basic Steps to Start Your Affiliate Marketing
Twitter: webcareergirl
Says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Valentina – Yes I have lots of weirdly named files, all in different locations. I guess I am trying to organize them all now properly, it’s taking a long time!
Twitter: frugalzeitgeist
Says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 9:16 am
Oh Jeese….. Well I am very glad you found it.
I have a second drive that plugs in and mirrors my comps files. If the comp gets broken then I can get a new mac, plug the drive in and it restores the whole thing in a few hours….. Very useful!!
Backups are essential however I don’t have all my websites backed up and I MUST do this doon
!!!!!
Forest´s last blog ..Me My Debt and I
Twitter: webcareergirl
Says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Forest – That is such a good way of doing it!! I just have my external hard drive and I do use Dropbox for my client work at least.
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Wow! I can’t imagine doing 50,000 words worth of material and suddenly losing it. Your heart must have been beating so fast during that moment. If that kind of thing happened to me, I’ll probably hire someone to punish me with a whip. lol. Good thing your work didn’t go to waste.
Hope you have a great weekend, Ruth!
Ryhen
Ryhen | Mind Power´s last blog ..Heroes Never Say Die… They Say Cheese!
Twitter: webcareergirl
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January 25th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Lol Ryhen, you are very right! I was lucky. And thanks I had a great weekend
Twitter: bluepop13
Says:
January 28th, 2010 at 1:09 am
I’m glad you got everything back in order. I few weeks ago I went into the coding of my blog and added something, only to discover my blog was no longer up. It was down for a period of 3 hours and I wasn’t too happy. I couldn’t even get into cPanel half of the time.
I finally went into the WordPress Forums and someone gave me a suggestion – it worked. My lesson, backup, backup, backup lol.
Good advice here.
Eric´s last blog ..Lets Help Each Other