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My POV
By Brian A. Wilson
Back Up: Maybe Today, Maybe Tomorrow, but Soon...and for the Rest of Your Life.
My computer died this week. So did my external hard drive. So did my Sony Mini-DV camera.
I think there's an electronic vortex under my house, jangling the default array of the subatomic particles in all my high-tech devices, thereby causing them to crater.
If my programmable toaster craps out tomorrow, I'm moving.
Why should you care? Because you could be next. I'm here to deliver the gospel: BACK UP YOUR MATERIAL. And while you're at it, PRINT OUT A HARD COPY of anything you treasure.
Yes, I know that computers are supposed to lead us to a paperless world where trees can live free and happy and unafraid. But we ain't there yet. I recycle heavily, so I don't feel guilty printing out versions of my scripts as I create them. Why go to all that trouble? To paraphrase the Marines, I'm hoping for the best and planning for the worst. If my computer dies and eats everything, in the worst case, I could re-type every script I have.
Oh. My. God.
No, I don't want to do that, but I'd rather have that option than have five hundred pages of bright white paper staring at me, and no idea what goes on them.
If you're like most human beings, you tell yourself, "I'll back up tomorrow." Or "I backed up last month, and really, how much could I have done in the interim?" Or "I don't know how to back up." Or "I hate it when people nag me about backing up my stuff! I'll get to it...later!"
Stop procrastinating, and just visualize a moment. Suppose everything you had just went "poof." Suppose your backup went with it. Suppose you had...nothing.
That would suck. Believe me, it would suck worse than backing up!
You might be lucky enough to have a friend like my pal Kevin, who was willing to spend hours of his precious free time Disk Warrioring my system and salvaging heaps of info. But what if you don't? Or what if your Kevin doesn't succeed?
You might think, "Well, professional data recovery services would save my bacon." Well they might. But do you have the $500 to $10,000 it could take to save your hard drive? If you do, why aren't you using that heap of cash to make a movie!? But I digress.
Take time. Make time. Today. Back up everything. In two or three places. On a variety of media. Print out all of your scripts. Stash them safely.
Copy all your scripts to a disk, label it carefully, and put it in a safe deposit box. You're hoping those scripts are worth millions, right? Then do what it takes to protect your valuable work from fire, theft, gremlins or misalignment of subatomic particles.
Back up now. Thank me later.
Excuse me. My ZIP drive is calling.
After you back up, keep writing.
BW
LA
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