Tao Of Backup Wailing Wall Story

The Backup Armageddon, or The Second Coming of Lost Dreams

This story is a heavily devastating one, as you will soon see after reading this. On Sept. 15, 2003, I noticed that my computer was strangely on from last Sunday. It was an old Packard Bell computer that I had received as a Christmas gift in 1998. Back then, I was not familiar with the Tao of Backup. All I had were floppy discs. No CD-RW disk or drive. It was working all right through the years, until it started screwing up multiple times that I had to bear the pain of reinstalling Windows 95 while I looked on, knowing that my files were erased, byte by byte. So far, it was painful, but the real crushing blow came to me on Sept. 15, 2003, when I found the computer to still remain on. I wasn't so sure about it, but it might've been my little parasite of a sister who left it on. When I cut the monitor on, I tried to move my files to another place, and then...a computer crash froze my system. IT was frozen, locked up, etc. So I decided to give it a cold boot, but it would be my last for the computer. Error messages popped up, and I tried everything, but alas...no solution. I thought the computer had years of dust, so I tried to fix it by dismounting the computer halfway and trying to clear and remove the dust, and even fixed my CD-ROM drive. When I almost placed everything back to the way things were, new errors appeared, and it felt like there's nothing I could do. The truth is, that the reason why I became miserable to post my story here was that I was working on a dystopian novel for six years ever since 1998. My prep work, my ideas, and my brainstorming notes to be exact. Because of my love for Japanese animation or "anime", I wanted to write a novel to be made into an anime to be shown only in Japan. IT was entitled "Sekai Taisen Omega", or in English, "World War Omega". After that, I started preparing for the day my dreams of my novel, along with my other files I miss so much, will be restored and finally achieving the true enlightenment of the Tao of Backup by searching for needed files (music, videos, text, programs, etc.) to prepare me for that hopeful day. But until then, I follow another type of Tao of Backup:

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Tips for Writing CDs (CD Archival) Saturday, May 23, 2004 5:00 A.M. (After watching Trigun - Final Episode: "Under the Sky So Blue")

1. Search and Download desired files from the internet or world wide web 2. Save to hard drive/floppy/online hard drive 3. Purchase CD-RW discs and drive 4. Download saved files 5. Setup drive, burning software and discs 6. Make original copy of files onto test disc (first-time user) 7. Success: Make backup copy/Fail: Try again (use same disc or new disc) 8. When finished, make backup disc for emergency if OD/BDs fail, but do not use them for writing. If you write any file to a last remaining disc (either OD/BD) Only copy files onto computer for safe backup until you purchase new CD-RW discs (in other words, make a Replacement Backup Disc) 9. Make archive of files and/or playlist of music and video files (Use Winamp) 10. Save playlist as .m3u and use a word processor to create list 11. Make corrections, delete the errors and save list as text files 12. Print list and do same with other discs (repeat previous steps 6-11) 13. Store Replacement Backup Discs in safe locations in CD Cases; Check to see if RBDs are damage-free and dust-free 14. If damaged beyond point of repair (scratched up too much) move all of your files to your computer with CD-RW drive and make a new disc and either throw away old disc or keep it in an abandoned section, and label it "Failed CD-RW Discs", where if at some point your failed disc still has your old files or still has storage space in it, you still have a chance to revive your files and place them in a new disc. 14. Use a CD-RW to use as a prototype test disc for your files, and when your storage is complete, move them to your computer, and when your CD-RW disk is full, use two CD-R discs to make a Backup and Replacement Backup.

1. Original Disc (OD) 2. Backup Disc (BD) 3. Replacement Backup Disc/Emergency Backup Disc (RBD/EBD)

     Benson J Maxter
    Anderson, SC, United States of America, Thu 15-Jul-2004 6:16pm

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