I'm going to cry.

[AstralFire]

I've been working on maps, NPC statblocks, dialogue, NPC tokens since yesterday morning. And then, and then today, right before the session is about to start - when it's all almost done - someone decides that it's easier to flip switches at random in the fusebox instead of finding the chart that lists which switches go to where.

-sob-

Photoshop doesn't have an 'autosave' feature and I do most of my shorthand writing in Textpad, which doesn't have it on by default.

[Yukitsu]

And an important lesson is learned, Ie. save your data every half hour or so.

[Moriato]

Ouch, that sucks, I wish I could tell you there was some way to recover it all, but if it was never saved, there's nothing to recover

[mistformsquirrl]

I've been working on maps, NPC statblocks, dialogue, NPC tokens since yesterday morning. And then, and then today, right before the session is about to start - when it's all almost done - someone decides that it's easier to flip switches at random in the fusebox instead of finding the chart that lists which switches go to where.

-sob-

Photoshop doesn't have an 'autosave' feature and I do most of my shorthand writing in Textpad, which doesn't have it on by default.

<;_;> I feel your pain. I learned that lesson with my artwork <x.x> I'd gotten so engrossed in it that when the electricity went out I was probably 80% done.

This taught me to save. A lot. ><

[Comet]

-sob-

Damn. That's happened to me, too. On more than one occasion.
We need some humour to lighten the mood. This is best done by laughing at you and your misfortune.
Har har har.

Nah, that didn't work. Maybe that old "Jesus saves!" joke would do the trick?

[Dublock]

ouch...I'm sorry....but yea...save and save often. If you think about saving you should save, if you get up from your pc, save, if you realized you became distracted, save.

I'm sorry though...I've lost hours of work myself when I had learn that lesson.

[Ravens_cry]

While I have never had this level of pain, I have had several occasions where I am working on piece, and then have my big toe nudge the power bar switch.
Oops.
Now the power bar is far away from any possible toe related nudgery. And I save, and save, and save.
The trouble is, saving can derail the train of thought.

[AstralFire]

The only other time I've lost work like this was when my surge protector's power button was right by my toe. But I -do- keep autosave on with OpenOffice... just not the other stuff.

I'm going to go drown my sorrows in the remaining cup of ice cream we have.

[potatocubed]

It sucks when that happens. All I can say is that you need to learn from this experience so that it never happens again: train yourself to hit Ctrl+S every few minutes, or whenever you're not doing anything else.

Or do it on Google Docs. Doing all your writing on Google Docs means that not only is it autosaved every so often, somebody else is making sure that the data is all backed up in case of a server meltdown.

[mistformsquirrl]

Ice cream is the great solver of problems <^-^>m This is why my fridge is currently stocked with both Coffee and Chocolate flavors >.>m

(Okay it may also be because I have a HUGE sweet tooth)

[AstralFire]

Or do it on Google Docs. Doing all your writing on Google Docs means that not only is it autosaved every so often, somebody else is making sure that the data is all backed up in case of a server meltdown.

I am -not- giving the Google machine any more steam than it already has. :|

The chocolate ice cream is helping my sorrows.

[TheCountAlucard]

I've had something along those lines happen as well, but it was that I wasn't aware that my laptop charger wasn't working, and that the battery has a fairly short lifespan these days. My stuff on OpenOffice survived, but the little notes I was taking in Notepad did not.

Anyway, sorry to hear that!

[PLUN]

Writer protip: take three deep breaths, say 'second draft' and go at it while it's fresh. It will be better, trust me. Second drafts are the biggest changes and inheirantly superior. If you're feeling really defeated, play with a pen and paper or visio and doodle a diagram or something, keep a shred of momentum and what you had originally.

[Mando Knight]

For more prevention, use an uninterruptible power supply. And stock up on ice cream.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Fortunately, this has never happened to me, because I got into the Ctrl-S-after-every-sentence habit before something like this happened rather than in reaction to it. Aside from compulsive saving, two things have helped me avoid this: (1) Using a laptop. If your power dies and you have even 30 seconds of battery left, that's enough time to save and close everything. (2) Using programs with document recovery. In OpenOffice, if the power suddenly dies and you haven't saved a document recently, it'll recover the document the next time you open it. (Don't know if Word does this too, I haven't used MS stuff in years.)

The moral of the story is that writing shorthand in Notepad is probably not the best idea, and if you don't use a graphics program with autosave, Ctrl-S is your best friend. Switching to OO Writer and GIMP should prevent this from happening again. [/proselytizing]

[AstralFire]

Word was the first to do it, remember OpenOffice is largely a copy. :P I use OpenOffice for actual writing.

TextPad has an autosave feature and I guess I'll be using it from now on. I like having fewer buttons and margin worries when I'm writing notes. As for GIMP, I'm staying far, far away. That thing is a pain to use.

[Strawman]

By my count, I've lost three essays and a short story to power outages. I also lost power once in the middle of signing up for classes online, after I had gotten up a six a.m. in order to get good spots.

Microscopic nuclear power sources can not come soon enough.

[Mr.Moron]

Instead of saving regularly from now on you should make a point of not saving. Every minute that goes by without saving will be an adrenaline packed thrill- ride of danger, since you know the dangers of it first hand. Now is the time to spit in the face of lost data and live on the edge.

[BloodyAngel]

I've lost a good six hours progress on an art piece I'd been working on, due to nothing more than our crappy wiring. Considering I make my living selling my art, that was about the same as going to work for nearly a full day, and then being told that you weren't getting paid because "oops". I had to spend the next day re-doing everything again... when I could have been moving on to my next commission.

I feel your pain. It DID teach me to always save my stuff every ten or fifteen minutes, though.

[Starsinger]

Astral, that sucks, I know just what that feels like.

[Badgercloak]

Save often and also keep a hard copy or print out of what you've done.

[Sliver]

Once I had finished some homework and (without saving first) left for a sec.. My dad has a habit of catching my PC almost every time I leave so he just logged on to check some email and then exited.. When he was asked if he would like to save changes, he automaticly clicked "No".. The email window wasn't full size and he clicked near the X but instead of the email.. MY HOMEWORK. Had to waste a few more hours to re-make that stuff...

[Drakyn]

On the very small upside, if you manage to gather the mental fortitude to redo any of this stuff, odds are you'll make half of it better and double its size with some other things you've thought of along the way. I had a forced rewrite like that five years back or so when my computer was still melting down once per year - lost over a hundred pages of combined world mythology and creatures. The good news was that much of it sucked and this let me take a fresh shot at it.

[mistformsquirrl]

On the very small upside, if you manage to gather the mental fortitude to redo any of this stuff, odds are you'll make half of it better and double its size with some other things you've thought of along the way. I had a forced rewrite like that five years back or so when my computer was still melting down once per year - lost over a hundred pages of combined world mythology and creatures. The good news was that much of it sucked and this let me take a fresh shot at it.

This is very true.

I actually deleted one of my stories some time back because, although it was OK as it was, I knew if I forced myself to do it all over again (and without being able to simply re-copy it... that is - I'd have to do it from scratch, but with the 'general ideas' still in place, rather than going word-for-word) It'd come out better.

And it did. (I did however yell and scream at myself the entire way through the process >.< because every time I wanted to give up I had to realize "... give up = no story" >.<)

[Doc Roc]

What do you need, for what system, and when do you need it by, AF? You've amused me on a number of occasions so I freely offer my assistance. Please contact me via listed means or PM.

[Gan The Grey]

Yeah the worst thing that's ever happened is someone broke into my car and took all my DnD stuff, including a binder with the stats and maps of an entire world I built. I'm still trying to picture what a "DnD Thug" looks like...

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Protip: Write on a laptop with Word.

[AstralFire]

What do you need, for what system, and when do you need it by, AF? You've amused me on a number of occasions so I freely offer my assistance. Please contact me via listed means or PM.

That's... incredibly kind of you Tidesinger, and thank you for the compliment as well. But this is part of an on-going campaign, and one member is having significant real life difficulties; by the time the power came back on, we'd agreed to delay this session another week.

Thanks for the encouragement as well, to those who offered.

[Aneantir]

Yeah the worst thing that's ever happened is someone broke into my car and took all my DnD stuff, including a binder with the stats and maps of an entire world I built. I'm still trying to picture what a "DnD Thug" looks like...

He looks suspiciously like a DM who forgot to plan for his session later that night.

[Zergrusheddie]

Nah, that didn't work. Maybe that old "Jesus saves!" joke would do the trick?

Jesus Saves.

I think I will add to this thread with my completely unique statement:
Dude, that sucks hardcore. How many hours of work did you lose?