Backup techniques for writing?

[AnRoinnUltra]

Hello Chrons,
Finally got round to downlanding Scrivener (on recommendation from @Phyrebrat back in August). Any writing I've done before this has been higgeldy piggeldy on scraps of paper/ emails/ texts etc., and one of the advantages is that it's almost impossible to lose the whole lot in one go. Higgeldy piggeldy probably doesn't lend itself to quality work so am gonna try keep all together -was wondering if anyone had advice for backup -Google Drive etc., is there a good method anyone could recommend?
Any advice appreciated

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

Having gone through the pain of losing a manuscript to the computer gremlins, I would recommend having multiple backups. I keep backups on an external hard drive, a flashdrive, and Onedrive. I'm also considering emailing myself a copy as a fourth backup.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Having gone through the pain of losing a manuscript to the computer gremlins, I would recommend having multiple backups. I keep backups on an external hard drive, a flashdrive, and Onedrive. I'm also considering emailing myself a copy as a fourth backup.

Thanks -I'll keep that in mind, and will try to follow your advice. I hear what you're saying about multiple copies -not as bad as losing a proper manuscript but I've a vague memory of writing a pretty long story about a roundabout spotter who realized the 'brickie' ones were actually control points for alien weaponry and had to go on the run -even managed to get someone to read it, but the computer is now used parts. The thread was to see if there was a lazy way where the computer would automatically fire off copies to one or two online locations every time it shut down ...sorta it's 2021, computers do all that type of mundane stuff for humans nowadays

 

[msstice]

Google documents is pretty well backed up - unless you forget your email password.

I have a somewhat technically involved way, but it works well for me. I write in plain text and check my code into a version control system which I then store with a provider.

 

[Astro Pen]

3 thumb drives. One in my wallet, one in the glovebox, regularly updated, and one in the house for dailys.
There is nothing but my writings on them so there is no security issue.
If a car thief can actually sell my writing for serious money I take my hat off to him

I also used to email stuff to myself, text files use very little space. A whole novel is about 750 kb

 

[sknox]

I have a Dropbox account. I have Scrivener set to put not only the manuscript but also the backup copies there (different folders, of course). I then have a backup utility that copies changed files to an external hard drive, with full backups once a month. So, two copies are in the cloud and one copy is locally on a drive. The key here is to have copies that are in physically separate locations.

One thing is worth mentioning. It's not enough to do the backups. You should walk yourself through a restore at least once, so you know how (and if) it works. Sort of like with filing--what matters isn't the filing, it's the retrieval. Same: it's not the backup so much as the restore that counts.

 

[Venusian Broon]

One can always make an automatic process that saves everything you deem valuable from your harddrive to OneDrive or the Google/Apple/Other equivalents, but being slightly paranoid about doing anything like that, because automatic processes may possibly fail without you knowing - out of sight and out of mind is bad here - I have basically put in my PC's calender that every Friday is 'Save Day' (It's easy to do this as an eternal recurring feature). So I get reminded at the end of Thurday night/Friday morning which then makes me manually save - onto external drives or to the cloud etc.

It's a tiny bit more time consuming, but it eases further fears of potential mishaps that could wipe out effort.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

I have a Dropbox account. I have Scrivener set to put not only the manuscript but also the backup copies there (different folders, of course). I then have a backup utility that copies changed files to an external hard drive, with full backups once a month. So, two copies are in the cloud and one copy is locally on a drive. The key here is to have copies that are in physically separate locations.

One thing is worth mentioning. It's not enough to do the backups. You should walk yourself through a restore at least once, so you know how (and if) it works. Sort of like with filing--what matters isn't the filing, it's the retrieval. Same: it's not the backup so much as the restore that counts.

Thanks, I think you have a pretty professional setup (from the last advice you gave) and it's great to get an insight into it; I spent the guts of an hour setting up Scrivener to auto sync with Google Drive but the end result was 'an error has occurred'.

Can't wait till humans get the same rights as machines, and we can just happily fire out their excuses...
'My God, what is wrong with you ...how could you say the mushrooms were okay to eat -three people died and there's six more in intensive care!'
'Ah, but you don't have access to all the facts like I do. Because if you did you would know that an error occurred. Goodbye!'

Appreciate the advice, gonna go with making copies for now (still sore about losing an hour of writing time!).

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

One can always make an automatic process that saves everything you deem valuable from your harddrive to OneDrive or the Google/Apple/Other equivalents, but being slightly paranoid about doing anything like that, because automatic processes may possibly fail without you knowing - out of sight and out of mind is bad here - I have basically put in my PC's calender that every Friday is 'Save Day' (It's easy to do this as an eternal recurring feature). So I get reminded at the end of Thurday night/Friday morning which then makes me manually save - onto external drives or to the cloud etc.

It's a tiny bit more time consuming, but it eases further fears of potential mishaps that could wipe out effort.

Thanks, that's what I'm gonna go with (and the hard drive on the dashboard like @Astro Pen suggested); seems the safest way -like Kirk said (and I can't remember the episode, think he may have been hitting someone/ thing with a stick 'primitive, but effective').

 

[Wayne Mack]

I rely on USB drives for backups; they are so cheap nowadays. I have a two phase back up process. I have a top level folder that contains my current work in progress and an Archive folder that gets updated with updates to my current work as well as holding all previous work This allows me to purge items from my current work and avoid clutter. I then copy the entire archive folder to a USB. I make my back ups weekly, typically on Sunday evening. If I have been really prolific, I may make a mid week back up, but I feel that one week's work is easy to recreate and might actually benefit from the rewrite. I do not keep anything more than the previous week's work

For the more technically oriented, I am using a Windows machine and have *.bat file scripts that user Robocopy.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Keep it simple. One backup drive, one USB drive.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Thanks for all the replies -it looks like USB/ manual backups are the go to for writers; I was probably being lazy when I posted this, appreciate the advice.

 

[Biskit]

I have daily/weekly/monthly backups scheduled to run to a separate internal harddrive (that's the pattern I adopted from my time in a numerical modelling R&D team). Periodically, I run that same backup to an external harddrive. Since I also split my time between desktop and laptop machines, all my writing files are routinely synced between the two, providing another layer of redundancy.

Multiple physical locations are important. Any storage device can fail. In the last couple of years I've seen a pair of hardrives decide to stop working - one failed gradually, allowing time to make sure the contents were copied, and the other suddenly reported itself unable to find any usable partitions, defying all my attempts to recover it.

 

[Ambrose]

Email the file to yourself regularly, as well as using another form of detachable such as a thumbdrive.
Keep any additional copies very separate. Years ago I advised someone to keep copies of this draft thesis on floppy discs. Some time later he told me he had done that, and kept them beside his computer. His office was in a downtown corner shop. Two cars collided outside early one morning. One car ended up in the shop. It exploded and the shop burned out.
He gave up.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Email the file to yourself regularly, as well as using another form of detachable such as a thumbdrive.
Keep any additional copies very separate. Years ago I advised someone to keep copies of this draft thesis on floppy discs. Some time later he told me he had done that, and kept them beside his computer. His office was in a downtown corner shop. Two cars collided outside early one morning. One car ended up in the shop. It exploded and the shop burned out.
He gave up.

Wow, that read like an advert for online storage -mad story; poor lad ...guess some things are just not meant to be.

 

[dgackst]

I do all my writing using Google Docs which is linked into my Google Drive account. I have a Chromebook that is pretty reliant on wifi access to function 100%, but I am still able write within Google Docs without an internet connection. And what's nice about Google Docs and Google Drive is that whenever I do return to an area with wifi access, the Google Doc is automatically updated and saved to my Google Drive account. Meaning I do not have to worry about keeping my files all up to date at the end of a writing session.

However, I would be lying if I said I wasn't paranoid about my Google Drive suddenly getting hacked/ all my files disappearing one day. In fact, that thought looms over my head the more stories and files I add to it. Maybe a USB or external hardrive regularly updated isn't a bad idea...

 

[sknox]

>Maybe a USB or external hardrive regularly updated isn't a bad idea...
It's actually a desperately important good idea.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

A word of warning on relying too much on Google. Your account could get banned and deny access to all your Googley stuff

This article goes into more detail

Google can completely shut down your Google account. Here's the info you need.

If your Google account is banned, it could cause widespread issues for you. No Gmail, no Docs, no YouTube — it's a scary thought.

www.androidauthority.com

 

[dgackst]

A word of warning on relying too much on Google. Your account could get banned and deny access to all your Googley stuff

This article goes into more detail

Google can completely shut down your Google account. Here's the info you need.

If your Google account is banned, it could cause widespread issues for you. No Gmail, no Docs, no YouTube — it's a scary thought.

www.androidauthority.com

That is reason enough for me to finally backup my files. Thank you for sharing that article.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Thank you for sharing that article.

You're very welcome. As other people have mentioned it's always good to have backups in different places

I have a backup to an external hard-drive and I also backup the really important stuff to my personal website.

I don't, as yet, have a third backup that is kept in a separate physical location, but USB sticks seem to be the easiest option