Two items wanted a computer restart re updates: 1) Dell’s maintenance software and 2) one of the updaters both wanted a computer reboot.
Did a warm reboot and the machine came up. In the process, I’d seen some junk in the Explorer files that was everything from recipes to old novel outtakes, and decided to move them to folders and organize them. Spent about 30 min doing a gross sort.
Then I called up my novel. Word Perfect had lost its ‘history’ of what’s been called recently. This is usual on a reboot. Of course. No sweat. I called up Explorer, asked it for the current file…and got an ancient one, mostly outline.
Well, damn. I doublechecked the directory, called up what should be it, and got the outline again.
I then set about to recall key words which might be unique to this novel, and Explorer couldn’t find them. It found a lot of references in stuff from five years back.
I then got into ‘file options’ and found the search criteria not set to find-word-inside-files, which is my preference, but this is a fairly new computer.
No joy.
Well, at this point I am feeling a little frantic, and contemplating consulting Carbonite, but with my file indexing screwed so badly the computer’s lost its document organization, I’m a little hesitant. I start searching file by file, visually, starting with the most logical places it should (still) be.
Found it.
I did find there are ways to force a re-indexing. But I’d already solved my problem. I trust the computer is now doing that without being asked. I’ll doublecheck later.
Jane suspects (and I think she’s right) that the update required a re-indexing which is not yet complete, ergo the confusion, increased when I moved some files…probably started it all over again.
It would be really nice if I could find a search like my old one that would search by date created: I realize that modern programs generate thousands of ‘new’ files, but if you could target a specific directory, you could weed those enormously.
At any rate, I gave the ‘real’ file a unique name and special location.
But it disturbed the whole household when Jane was trying to remember a bit she’d formed, then forgotten; and myself,on a sincere roll, who lost that thread; so Jane’s in there pulling hair algae from our [still in maturing-mode] large marine tank and I’m sitting here writing this post.
Aagh!
Ahem, didn’t we discuss this last week? Aren’t you seeing/hearing the TV/Radio ads from “the government” admonishing us to prepare because we get no warning, “Tomorrow you will have your heart attack.” or “Tomorrow’s the ‘Big One’.”
To “borrow” a line from a famous movie, “I have just one word for you, my dear: thumb drives.” 😉
Now, like all technology they come with some disadvantages (easily lost), but they are easy to use and appropriate for Q&D backups. (Put a lanyard on it?)
All of them have some limitation on the number of write-cycles. (The issue isn’t so much the “field” where the files reside, but the “root directory” that gets written to over and over!) So the preferred way of using them as backup is to fill them completely before erasing. That is, writing sequential backups of the files you want to save with keys in the name/directory for which versions/groups they belong to, then when it’s full, temporarily copy the still relevant ones to the HD, erase everything, and copy those relevant backups back to the thumb drive.
Yes, I also heartily advocate to make copies of your valuable files to at least two other devices (thumb drives or the hard-disk of other conected via LAN computers) regularly, and especially before tinkering with software or even BIOS upgrades.
By the way, how stable is the electric network in your region?
Yup – a Windows update can screw with indexing. Been there, done that, and now I’m extremely consistent on where I file things.
However, the flash drive write limit is much higher than it used to be, so much so that some computers use SSDs (Solid State Drives) as caches or even main storage. Modern operating systems write flash drives to even wear, writing from the first to the last segment then cycling.
As for discussing this before, I don’t remember it coming up last week, but it’s definitely come up. I suggested keeping a flash drive in your computer at all times (perhaps in a flash card slot, so it doesn’t stick out and get knocked). Then, you can probably tell WP to use the flash drive for backups while using the normal drive for “real” file saves (or vice versa). That way, you always have two copies of your file on two different devices, one of which is easily removable. Even if you drop your laptop in the pond, the SD card should survive: a little wash with distilled water, and you’re good to go.
You know, you use your systems very heavily. You replace keyboards every few years, while I have working keyboards over a decade old. You can operate in a risky way only so long before the odds catch up to you. Time to reform. I’m happy to help you set up something you can live with. But after all this time, don’t expect more than polite sympathy if you have a catastrophic failure.
Certainly the technology is always improving. But even some (tiny) “appliance” devices, e.g. routers, that use CF/SD cards as SSD storage have a variety of file systems, e.g. JFFS, that spread the R/W usage around, more or less smoothly. The problem is, we can buy 16-64GB thumb drives for $10-20–they’re commodity devices! But the package rarely if ever includes “advanced specifications”, nor identifies the internal technology used. We don’t know what we’ve got, so why not handle it in a manner that extends its lifetime. Besides, having the last n versions of the book on the thumb drive ain’t such a bad thing–as long as we don’t errrrm “misplace” the sucker! 😉
Despite Windows’ disadvantages, it does seem to have drivers that maximize SD storage safety.
I think we’re eventually going to see the death of the disk drive and the dominance of solid state (SSD/SD) storage.
Of course, I’ve been surprised this hasn’t happened for decades. 😉
Speaking of large marine tanks… the new Toronto Aquarium just opened this week: http://www.ripleyaquariums.com/canada/ The pictures I like show the underwater tunnel beneath the ‘Predators Tank’ – where all the fish are kept ‘well-fed’. Probably a very good use of $20, I’m betting.
I use cloud storage backup now, [Carbonite] and have tended to use networked backup, to the main computer, which, curiously enough, I haven’t done often enough is the network. So I did have Carbonite as a recourse. I just wanted to know, before I reached up and contaminated it [potentially] what was going on with my computer.
I can recommend Carbonite, more than a year after installing it. When I got my new computer, there was very little headache involved in moving files. I just installed my programs, then told Carbonite to pour all my files down from heaven upon the barren disk beneath. It gave me everything that was on the ‘old’ computer, and then after 2 weeks of everything working correctly I transferred the Carbonite backup authorization to the new computer, which is about as painlessly as ever I’ve moved my labyrinthine setup to a new machine. It’s not free, but it sure beats the week-long multi-computer headaches we used to have; it’s a case of ‘you rarely need it, but when you think you might need it, it’s a real comfort.’
The quality of Carbonite is not strained?
A chuisle, grá mo (literary) chroÃ*, what if Carbonite goes chapter 11 or power fails or any number of things? Keep your fate in your hands! You and Jane. You and Jane can do both. Belt and suspenders. Okay, I’m being extremely officious (not to use a less polite word). Fine! I’ve been doing this, professionally, for four-plus decades! And I do not like to think of how long it’s been!
If you tell me how to write or how to conduct a classroom, I will absolutely** defer to you! Likewise, Jane and BJDs. Take some advice from those who have been there before: you do not want to depend on anyone but yourself for backup!
Acushla [usual English translation], inherently, I do not care! For you and Jane, I care. Put your fate in your own hands! It will be frictionless once you or Jane sets it up.
Please understand, I’m burning a boatload of bridges (how’s that for a mangled metaphor?) to try–again–to keep your data safe because I do not want to be the one to tell you you’ve gotten into a hopeless situation! I understand, better than you can know, that I’m burning bridges here. “Help me, Carolyn-aiji, you’re my only hope!”
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(Now, you see, this is why I dislike italics in italics. I prefer Patrick O’Brian’s style, where thoughts are in quotes and you rarely, if ever, needed to double-italicize, getting back to a Roman font. I find it especially annoying with ships, like The Pride of Chanur, which I consider minor characters. But I digress!)
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EOT/EndIt/I will not bring this up again unless you or Jane ask. Feel free to contact my via email.
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* “My pulse, beat of my [literary] heart” — Irish, mistakes mine.
** To be sure, ornery Westerner that I am, I might discuss it with you. But, push come to shove, I’ll take your advice and be thankful to get it.
I’ll stand with you! Won’t say I’ve got my own scars from the IT battles (because I always listened, considered, and was prepared), and I do have a story or two. 😉
I suppose we need to mention that the best backup system is the one you’ll use! Religiously.
One absolute flaw: somebody else owns where it resides. Having your crown jewels on a little thumb drive you can put in your own jewelry box is, in my mind, a great comfort. 😉 And it doesn’t prohibit one from doing other things as well.
p.s. we’re talking backup here, not archive.
I’m glad that you are savvy enough to know where and how to look for disappeared work.
Jeez! I become crazed when I, or the helper-cats, misplace something necessary in my studio. I would be in outer space if I lost work on the computer. For that reason my glaze recipes are on the computer, two back-up disks, one with a friend, and hard copy.
Alternative: If you’re okay with cloud storage, get a free account on Dropbox (they give you 2 gig), and download their desktop program. This creates a special “Dropbox” folder on your hard drive; everything in that folder gets sync’ed to their servers in real-time, every time you do a “save.” You can access this online mirror from any computer via a browser; you can also real-time-sync your files between computers (or your phone) if you want. The free Dropbox account keeps “backup” versions of your files for 30 days, so you can recover files that were accidentally deleted from your hard drive. –Obviously I’m an enthusiast 🙂 but I can’t count the times this has come in handy, particularly when traveling – no need to laboriously copy changed files from my laptop to my desktop when I get back home; once I boot up the desktop they sync automatically.
I use Carbonite for just about all of my data and Dropbox for files that are shared with my laptop. 2Gb doesn’t go far enough with a lot of images (and I’m not paying for more storage).
I’m glad you found it! That is such a heart-stopping feeling.
I use both Dropbox and Backblaze. The second is mostly important for me because of the number of photos on my hard drives. I do copy pictures off onto DVDs but right now I’m in the midst of tagging them all in Lightroom, so they’re staying put until everything is sorted. (I’ve tagged over 60,000 and still have about 50,000 to go).
I have such an exciting life.
I did a cursory look-up in the Help files for Winders, I know that in XP, I could search by a date range and it would cough up all the files within that range. I didn’t see that feature in Winders 7 any more, so maybe it’s gone……I know that that is how I used to locate files I couldn’t find, even if I knew the file name……sometimes my computers just wouldn’t cooperate.
Glad you found it…..
You can “filter” by date modified in Windows 7, which should do what you want. Click the little magnifying glass icon on the right side of the search box at the top of the Explorer window, and a drop down list should appear. At the bottom click “Add a search filter” and then click “Date Modified.” You don’t have to provide a name or anything else, it will filter the current folder by whatever date or date range you specify.
External hard drive. You can back up the whole thing, and it’s right there in your office.
Except when your external hard drive dies. Like two of mine did in the last year.
I’ve now decided I need to replace the drives every four to five years, no matter what. But I still prefer to have off-site backup besides. If someone steals the computer (and the drives) I can still reclaim my material.
I’m considerign a new one – I had to replace the C: drive last weekend, and the new one is much larger. It’s not urgent, yet.
For my business files, I’m a belt and suspenders kind of gal. I back up my business computer to a local external drive and to Carbonite. My other computers around the house all have an external HD hooked up. My latest desktop build which is purposed as a central location for ebooks, music and photos has a RAID1 setup backing up to an external HD, and I’ve wondered if I should sign it up on Carbonite as well! I’ve only lost one hard drive in my life that wasn’t backed up, fortunately on the machine we have hooked up to the TV. Lost one digital movie I had converted from VHS, so it was the best of all possible machines to have had a catastrophic HD failure. I still have the VHS and will be reconverting it soon. But I’ve become much more diligent about being sure that all the machines are backed up since then
I have also taken thumb drives out of town with me as well, since we run our business out of our basement. A client of mine had a serious fire at her business couple of years ago, and her local backup burned up with her computer. I spent days recreating her books; fortunately the fire was at the end of January. So there’s much to be said for the cloud.
When I’m looking for a file and have an idea of the date, I’ll sort the Windows Explorer window by date by clicking on the “Date Modified” column header. I think that would work without waiting for the indexing, but I wouldn’t bet money on it.
Yay! for belt and suspenders…in addition to Dropbox for everything essential, I also do Time Machine every 4 hours (I’m a Mac person) AND a bootable clone every week or two. An online tech MVP once called TM the “oops” fixer, and a full clone the “OMG!” fixer; I took her advice and have been very glad several times that I did. (OMG! includes taking my machine in to the Geniuses for its annual checkup, only to be told the next day that “Oh, your hard drive was about to fail, so we replaced it.” OMG! –Boy, was I glad for that clone.)
So that was what that was! A stupid Windows update! Something screwed with the permissions on all my files and locked me out of them! Rassled the octopus for over an hour (file by file!)and finally got it to cry “Uncle” and let me have my stuff. Nothing like a computer to get one’s knickers in a fankle.
A phrase sure to bring out a lot of screaming and strong opinions from the fans on a site like this….
‘LOST’ THE CURRENT NOVEL…
Don’t scare us like that! 🙂
Lol!
Honestly, ever since the weekend when a lightning strike blitzed my computer, which wasn’t even on {turned out that column that held the wiring that was connected to the power strip UPS that had my computer was a steel girder holding up other steel girders]…and y’know, even a uninterruptible power source can’t withstand mother nature at full bore…I think at that range it could have blitzed the computer even if it hadn’t been plugged in…
…and Jane and Lynn ended up spending 3 days at Kinko’s in firm possession of their scanning apparatus and producing 1-page-only separate files which had to be knit together, on a 1980’s OCR software which couldn’t tell an L from a 1, while *I* tried to set up a replacement computer and keep the story going (this was Fortress)…
I have been rather fanatical about multiple backups ever since that epic week. We have terabyte drives, we have thumb drives, we have cloud storage, we have multiple computers—we probably stupidly gave up DVD backups, but those were multiplying like rabbits and were never labeled—but at least it would take a hit heavy enough to disrupt the whole country to get us—instead of one of mother nature’s acts of whimsy with a steel girder and a nest of wiring.
What spooked me on this one was the chaotic loss of order. I have also (she said smiling) helped Jane recover from a total screwup where someone (who shall not be named, but it was not me or Jane) parked her disk (remember that operation?) on an EARLIER DOS and mis-targeted the read head on the hard disk. We had to reassemble all the files from a file recovery process (Norton) which just gave us what was in the sector AS CURRENTLY DEFINED by the head position. We had our tax records sifted into Harmonies of the Net like a deck of shuffled cards.
When I see chaos in a system, I proceed with utmost caution, which is why I wasn’t deliberately contacting Carbonite until I could be sure the system wouldn’t reach up and overwrite the Carbonite file with something not-my-file.
Probably can’t happen nowadays: but there are probably new and wonderful things you can do amiss.
When I see chaos in a system, I proceed with utmost caution, which is why I wasn’t deliberately contacting Carbonite until I could be sure the system wouldn’t reach up and overwrite the Carbonite file with something not-my-file.
Oh, yes, very wise! If there was one esoteric skill an IT manager should most develop it’s a knack for recognizing the start of, and avoiding “the rolling disaster”! Usually there’s not much to be lost in “freezing the scene”, and spending some “skull sweat” on analyzing the situation and approaching it in a deliberate manner to avoid making anything worse than it already is–and being right about that.
I had to reassemble all my files when rat was trying to be nice and do some updates for me.
Ate the hard drive.
I bought a recovery program and got most of my stuff back.
It occurs to me that we are very like anxious families. We are out here pacing, waiting for news from the delivery room. An official has just told us that the fetal heartbeat was lost for a while, but that the problem turned out to be a loose lead, and the mother was never in any danger.
Lol—I assure you the baby is healthy.
*Very glad* the current novel is OK!
I am generally very careful, but once in a while, I slip up.
I like using an external drive or a flash drive (thumb drive). Either is convenient. I can unplug it and take it with me or store it, away from the computer.
I am very thankful I have not often had serious losses. It’s been a long time, and I hope not to have a major loss of data like those ever again. (Equipment failures that took out the backups too. One was a hard drive and a backup drive. The other time was an Adobe CD that broke in the drive. Not fun times!)
Having succeeded with your files, here’s hoping you’ll have smooth sailing for a long while.
I spent part of last night going round the mulberry bush and back again with a character / story plan. However, I may still find a different solution.