Backing up your work

I've experienced a miracle tonight - you're not going to believe this one.

I keep all my files on a flash drive (aka finger drive - it's one of those little mini things that plug into a USB port.) This works for me for a variety of reasons, but basically all my files are with me all the time. Last fall, I made a fatal mistake in not backing up the drive, and so when it crashed (or whatever it is they do when they don't work anymore), I lost a ton of stuff. It was absolutely heartbreaking. I was able to recreate some of it from email files, but I lost a lot of data (including some manuscripts) that had never been emailed to anyone.

Now I back up my files monthly (or thereabouts). I learned my lesson, but as of this evening, I hadn't made my back-up for November.

I was just changing a load of laundry, pulling clothes out of the washing machine, and what do I see at the bottom of the drum? My flash drive. It was in the pocket of the skirt I wore today. I was feeling all riteous for doing laundry in the first place. A number of choice words flowed through my head (and a few came out of my mouth). The drive is now nice and clean -- mind you, full load of laundry including water and detergent.

I must have suffered enough today with the car trouble I had (my rental was the size of a roller skate -- I've never been so glad to have my Honda back again, but that's a different story.) I just plugged the drive in, and would you believe it worked! It doesn't look like any data was courrupted (I'm knocking on wood right now).

Needless to say, I just made my November back-up.