As a writer, you spend hours and hours on your computer working on stories. Now and then, you get panicked thinking about what might happen if you were to lose these things. Your system melts down, or you leave your laptop somewhere, or some other fate befalls all your work. It’s enough to make your heart race.

So, this year I worked out a way to back up my work (and everything else….from photos, to emails). Here’s a step by step guide for those who are interested.

1. Place all of the documents that you use into Folders within the ‘My Documents’ folder on Windows.
This especially applies to your stories. I keep all of mine in a folder called ‘My Stories’.

2. Get access to a Back Up Drive.
If you have a DVD burner, this may do they trick. Personally, I like to have everything on a hard disk. So, I went and bought a 160 gb disk, so that way if I get a stack of photos, I’ll never run out of space. It also saves the hassle of having multiple disks. You can buy Storage Devices with a stack of space pretty cheaply these days. Lacie is a good make that serves me well.

3. Download a Sync Manager.
There are lots of Syncing Software tools available to help you keep track of files. Sync Back Version 3 (free download) is one that I use. It has heaps of great functions that allow you to automatically transfer important files from your Personal Desktop to your Storage Device. You can set your preferences so that every time your computer detects the Storage Device is plugged in, it will search for files that have changed between your Personal Desktop and Storage Device, and only update the changed files. Very useful.

4. Find files outside of My Documents.
There will be some files that are not stored in your ‘My Documents’ folder. Things like your Email File, are often stored in the same folder as the specific application you use for this task. You may have to think and hunt around for these. Again, with something like Sync Back, you can set its preferences to back up these discreet folders too.

5. Set Back Up Times.
I try to backup my system every two weeks or month. So, it’s good to get into this habit. Maybe set an ‘Appointment Reminder’ in Microsoft Outlook to help.
That’s about it. I hope this is helpful. I find it takes the stress out of it all.

By the way, if you are rebuilding your PC from scratch, you may wish to download Google Desktop. It’s great for finding files on your PC. And, also comes with some great photo software (Picasa…by far the best tool I’ve seen) and a free virus scanner. There’s also a plug in you can get for Outlook that will help you back up and archive all your email from time to time. Do a search on Google for ‘Outlook 2003: Personal Folders Backup’ and you should find it.

Good luck!