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Topic : Re: What's a good way to backup your writing? One of the most important things for writers to do is to back up their work so that in the event of a computer failure, their work isn't lost. - selfpublishingguru.com

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In order for backups to really work, you need multiple factors in place:

Automation: If you forget to put a document or a document's version on a USB or email it to yourself, it is effectively not backed up. Dropbox is your best bet for this, with Mozy a close second.
Off-Site: Unless you have a system to regularly store copies in one of those indestructible black boxes, something as simple as a spilled coffee can ruin paper or external digital copies. Again, Dropbox, Mozy, or Amazon S3 server can accomplish this.
Version Control: If you have an automated system set up to back up a file that gets corrupted, you will have perfectly safe copies of a corrupted file. Version control ensures that you never lose any changes, no matter how small. My suggestion is mercurial (hg) and bitbucket, which fulfills the off-site requirement as well. But the earlier mention of git and github works just as well. A matter of preference, and easy to learn with a little knowledge of terminal navigation. Commit early, commit often.
Easy retrieval: it's pointless to have a backup if you can't find it or get easy access to it. Using a repository system like mercurial or git would allow you to not only to easily retrieve the documents, but also every change ever committed.

I personally use a combination of dropbox, mercurial, and bitbucket.


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