I don’t know why this happens, but nearly every time I need to send a book off to the printers, my computer stuffs up somehow. (Surprisingly, and happily, I had no problems when doing “The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion”.)
The night before last I had just finished backing up my new right-handed book, “The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion” to my external hard drive. I was then readying part of the file to make it into a PDF, ready to take to my local printshop to get printouts to send to the printer…
And something happened. I have no idea what. My very old desktop computer just hung and stopped doing anything. I rebooted and found that the computer now had an error that the usual checks and fixes couldn’t fix. Something called an “invalid sibling link”, whatever that is! (As far as I know, my relationships with my siblings are just fine…) I tried using the disk first aid things that come with the computer, but it said that it couldn’t fix it either, and that I should back up the computer now.
So began the process of backing up the whole computer, something I had not done for many years. I regularly back up the important things I am working on, but not the whole computer – mostly because it takes SO long! There was a huge proportion that copied ok, but some files just refused to copy. Oh well.
Googling the error on my laptop, it seems that its really quite serious. Oh dear.
So once the back-up was done, I have ignored the problem, and just continued preparing the files for print. It seems to be going ok. So as long as all continues in the same vein, I’ll get the book off to the printer, and then sort out the computer.
I have been thinking for some time that I need to retire my poor old computer, and move fully to my laptop, but that involves quite a bit of expense in upgrading computer programs. I’ve therefore been putting it off. Maybe this is just the kick in the pants I need to actually bite the bullet and do it.
But the moral of the story is: make sure you back up your computer regularly!
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
Great reminder Yvette! A few weeks ago I went to open a file on a memory stick, it said something about one file being corrupted, then I had funny heiroglyphics, now just a messgae saying it isn’t formatted. Luckily it was a backup. First memory stick to bite the dust. Now dilemma, whether to use it again? Tempted not to for they are so cheap now.
Just thought I’d let you know too, that I now have no trouble accessing your blog. Whatever wasn’t quite right is fixed now. I always suspect my PC at home, but when it locked up it did so at work too!
Good luck with the book
hugs
Julie in Australia
I wouldn’t use the memory stick again, if I were you. You’re right, they are so cheap now, and despite the fact that I hate the throw-away-ness of society, I wouldn’t risk my files on it!
Thanks for letting me know that its all working again for you. I wonder if it was the Scribd previews that were stuffing it up for you, seeing they were so large?
You’re the second blogger I follow who’s had problems in the past two days.
Guess I’ll go off-line and do a backup, then!
good girl!