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[Bleepey]

I spent all weekend preparing notes for an essay I had to do for a job interview, a good couple of hours of notes gone when my laptop crashes doing some sort of crash dump and it seems crash restore was not turned on. I am like oh well, I guess it'll be easier second time round and so maybe even a blessing in disguise just make sure to save frequently.. I start again on my notes, then my essay and I am almost finished, I am at the point where I have almost finished checking everything and as my luck would have it, only the version I saved a few hours back is present. The unsaved version I spent ages combing through and checking everything is gone. Hopefully it will only take me an hour or so based on this version I have now but fuck me, is this shit exhausting. What's the most amount anyone has lost whilst doing an assignment?

 

[nicoga3000]

I lost a 22 page lab report once. The save corrupted. I was pissed...BUT! I put another one together in less than an hour and got a perfect score on it. That was the moment I learned that college lab reports are complete bullshit (in undergrad at least).

 

[Septimius]

I'm a programmer.

Ctrl+S is what I do.

 

[Valkyr Junkie]

Never managed to lose any digital work like that before, and I graduated before there was an abundance of cloud services to make backups even easier. I always kept multiple local copies as well as a copy on a web server as I worked.

 

[TheAbsolution]

Backup.
Save often.
I've never lost more than 10 or 15 minutes with an assignment because of a crash because I follow those 2 rules.
I usually also have an online backup as well.

 

[CrunchyB]

Version control. Check it out, git.

 

[sssstententen]

Dont most modern word processors have auto save functionality? I know Word does. Think you have to turn it on or at least say yes to the prompt to turn it on first.

 

[djplaeskool]

CTRL+S

 

[muu]

Auto-save. Use webapps that won't lose data if applicable (evernote, etc).

 

[Meadows]

Google Docs mother fuckers

 

[brainzelda]

I use Google Docs exclusively because of this exact issue.

 

[Chipotle]

I've only ever pretended to have this happen.

 

[terrisus]

I obsessively save things every minute or two, and back things up regularly.

OP: You lost stuff twice? Seriously? After the first time, one would have thought you would have been careful to not let it happen again. I really can't understand why someone would be proof-reading a paper, and not have saved it. It's not like we're talking about printing out full copies or anything - it's a simple button press. What reason in the world is there to "put off doing it" until a certain point?

 

[nullref]

As a software developer, I can't even comprehend not saving after every sentence/statement. CTRL/CMD+S is just a reflex.

(Plus, I write pretty much anything in plain text (Markdown, etc.), and use version control. Then that in turn is backed up to a server/Dropbox. I recognize I'm hardly the common case.)

My sympathies, though.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

Save to the cloud.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Everything's better in the cloud. I use dropbox.

I also save every sentence/action when doing work. Which is why I hate console games without quicksave.

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

I used to carry around a USB pen whenever I was writing essays. I mainly use Google Docs instead now.

 

[Akuun]

You eventually develop a reflex of hitting ctrl+s after every sentence or two.

 

[Vermillion]

Google Docs mother fuckers

Feature set is a bit... lacking.

 

[Shadybiz]

I've actually never lost a document like that, but I could imagine it's damned annoying.

 

[Lesath]

Dont most modern word processors have auto save functionality? I know Word does. Think you have to turn it on or at least say yes to the prompt to turn it on first.

This. I know at least with MS Word, you can dig around your temp files for an autosaved document. Lost only about 10 minutes of progress.

 

[DedValve]

Google docs is the best thing in the universe. Hyperbole included.

If only Gdocs had the same tools as Microsoft Office then it would be the go to document maker.

 

[joelseph]

Dont most modern word processors have auto save functionality? I know Word does. Think you have to turn it on or at least say yes to the prompt to turn it on first.

On by default, Word 2007+ will even save a recovery point if you say NO to the save prompt.

%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word

 

[Junior Mint]

I've only ever pretended to have this happen.

lol this.

I CTRL+S out of habit and even if Word does crash, it always brings back a restored copy (which I pretty much never need).

 

[Aurongel]

CTRL-S or if you have a faster HDD then turn up the autosave interval in MS Office.

 

[Burger]

I've noticed a lot of apps on the Mac these days (recently used Text Editor, Mail, Final Cut Pro) are basically always saving. You can quit Final Cut Pro and it just disappears, next time you open it it's the same as when you left it.

More apps should be like this.

 

[Brian Griffin]

It's been said already but CTRL+S. Always.

 

[joelseph]

I've noticed a lot of apps on the Mac these days (recently used Text Editor, Mail, Final Cut Pro) are basically always saving. You can quit Final Cut Pro and it just disappears, next time you open it it's the same as when you left it.

More apps should be like this.

There is no difference between OS, both have been doing it for a while now.

 

[GK86]

Google docs saves after every stupid letter I type. So no worries for me.

 

[bigkrev]

This happened to me a few years ago. I spend all night writing a 15 page paper, print it out to proofread it, and then my computer dies.

Just said "fuck it" and turned the paper in without proofreading it or anything.

 

[Rebel Leader]

Use Google docs? Use Google docs.

 

[tino]

Should have used google doc.

 

[entremet]

Save to the cloud.

Yep. Love Dropbox for that.

Get in it on, OP.

 

[trixx]

Microsoft word auto saves to cloud/my documents I think

I have office university though

 

[HammerOfThor]

I'm a programmer.

Ctrl+S is what I do.

This, I do this very often.

 

[ganon]

Auto save is your friend.

 

[Madness]

Even though I use CTRL+S, MS word routinely saves it itself every few minutes. Also, I remember one time my laptop losing power and just shutting down with like 7% battery left, and when I turned it back on, with power, everything was the way it was.

 

[Balphon]

I'm rather surprised people don't CTRL+S after every sentence.

I typically make local and network backups every 30 mins or so as well.

 

[cyberheater]

No me but I've known friends who have and I've had to drive halfway across town to sort them out. Always happened when they were using MS word. How can a word processor crash?

 

[Napoleonthechimp]

I've noticed a lot of apps on the Mac these days (recently used Text Editor, Mail, Final Cut Pro) are basically always saving. You can quit Final Cut Pro and it just disappears, next time you open it it's the same as when you left it.

More apps should be like this.

It's also extremely unnerving.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

The most I have ever lost is a paragraph or so. I cannot not save at least every five minutes.

 

[Fireblend]

Yeah, I ctrl+s reflexively along with every press of the Enter key. Multiple times.

 

[sikkinixx]

I start a document, immediately save-as it into my Dropbox folder.

Everytime I hit save, voila, it's backed up into the infinite power of the cloud.



And if you don't Cmd(ctrl)+S every 5 minutes, you're fucking daft.

 

[Damaniel]

Save often (and turn on autosave if your program supports it)! I lost 5 minutes of work on an assignment last night and was mildly annoyed - losing a couple hours (or even more) would be devastating.

 

[samus i am]

Woot!

 

[Dead Prince]

don't be the one that never saves until you are done. who would do that.

 

[AlteredForms]

Microsoft Word automatically saves an open file at regular intervals to avoid this problem. Simply open the first menu option and you'll see different versions of the document, but with times next to them. Click on the latest and add anything missing.

 

[Jado]

Never managed to lose any digital work like that before, and I graduated before there was an abundance of cloud services to make backups even easier. I always kept multiple local copies as well as a copy on a web server as I worked.

Regular saves + email yourself the file every now and then. That's what I did back then. Also: save on work computer + save to flash drive.

Most written work I've lost is a couple of pages. I have lost hours of art/design work. That sucked.

 

[Massive Nights]

I write all my university work in Google Docs. Although if I have to do Table Of Contents or anything I copy it into Word and do it there, the ToC in Docs is a bit lacking. I also wish it had Word's system for keeping track of references.

 

[meow]

I learned this ages ago, thanks to the losses of others. In undergrad we had computer labs to work in, sometimes we would run really intensive programs. You could save to it, but I guess to prevent the computers from getting junked up and keeping those programs running smoothly, every time they restarted, basically everything except programs was wiped. They would restart once they'd been inactive for a certain period, but as long as you were using the computer, you were fine. Once or twice a year, someone would have the unhappy chance of somehow kicking or pulling the power cord out, so if they weren't saving to a USB or the cloud...poof, everything gone.

Even better, there was a second computer lab where all the computers automatically shut down and restart at 2 am, regardless of what you were doing. That one got quite a few people.