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[cmpentecost]

This is a reminder to everyone working on their photos, to save their work often.  I of course, have always known this, but I did not take my own advice, and just lost about 2-3 hours of work due to a 2 second power outage.  Needless to say, I am not happy, but I'll take it as a hard lesson learned.      

Christine

[Kenny]

Oh no! That has to be one of the worst feelings when it comes to computers.  I've been guilty of that very thing, too. I was working on a graphic the other night and we had a power outage.

Good advice that needs to become second nature to us All


Ctrl + S is your friend!

[paula]

There aren't enough swear words!   I  hate  that.

[Peter_AUS]

One of the reasons I have a UPS that has my equipment attached with internet at well, allows for saving and powering off.  Catches everything that happens on the power side.  Even have the telephone running through it as well.

But it is good advice.

Have you searched to see if there is a temp file that might have the work in it at all.

[cmpentecost]

I have not searched for temp files.  Wouldn't even really know where to look.  However, I'm going into town today and WILL be shopping for a UPS (Universal Power Supply). 

Christine

[Peter_AUS]

I have an APC Back-UPS RS800 which gives me plenty of watts for about 20 mins of backup time, certainly that would be enough for most people to save and shut down if necessary.

We have circuit breakers that trip if too much load is placed on the power points, if I have two heaters on, TV, 3 computers and then turn the iron on to do some ironing, the circuit breaker trips, takes a couple of minutes to shut off the heaters and iron and then trip the circuit breaker back on.  My girls computers go down, but mine stays up no problems at all.

Just make sure you get one that is more than your needs for the future.

[nirc2]

Dont forget that a UPS system can cause you cancer...

Anyway, I hit the ctrl+s almost every 5 minutes, if I dont do so, I actually FEEL strange ... it's like a bad (good) habbit of mine...

[Ptollemy]

I also tend to hit "save" alot.. especially when I've just finished doing something, or when I'm trying to work out what to do next. But you can never be reminded too often 

[Bud]

Getting a UPS is a great idea...

Some other thoughts - (Learned the hard way, unfortunately

Back up your files to some other storage device :

external hard drive
or burn a CD or DVD

I also save a new file when I start work for the day - appending a digit or alpha character in sequence works well - this gives me the option to return to a previous state should I have a bad day - and protects me with multiple copies of a work, should the file I'm working on become corrupt for some reason. 

This probably sounds like overkill, but better safe than sorry!

[glennab]

Hi!

A word or twelve of warning.

It's unlikely that any of you will deal with this particular incident, but I learned something the hard way a few evenings ago.  While I was out with friends one of my cats stepped on the UPS power button and turned the whole system off.  I didn't lose anything except a few moments of equanimity as I tried to figure out why both computers were down.

Anyway, I got the UPS back on, booted up the computers and proceeded with my usual business. The following evening as I worked on my restoration, we had one of our MANY power glitches, my computer faded, and I lost everything I'd been working on.  Evidently one must keep the computers off and allow the UPS to charge up completely before rebooting. !!@*&!!@#!!

GG

[Kenny]

A quick not about Bud saying he makes multiple copies of his work.


I do, too. If I decide to try something and I'm not sure it will work or not, I save it as a different file. I usually just put "a" or "b" after the file name. That way, if it doesnt' work, I can just go back to my old file. I usually end up with 3 or 4 files that way.

[glennab]

Hi!

I save multiple copies of my work, too.  Usually I have several working files, and every evening when I'm ready to quit, I burn a session to a CD of that day's work.  My first copy is of the original jpeg and the beginning of the restoration work.  I've gone back to earlier copies several times, so it's a great idea to have a back-up somewhere.  Once I'm finished with a restoration, I archive everything for that image.  It's probably not as imperative now that I'm not working on an 8-year-old computer, but I still feel better having archives.

My problem is getting so involved with what I'm doing that I don't save often enough.  Recipe for disaster!  That's why I lost so much in the UPS vs. cat fiasco.

GG

[cmpentecost]

After seeing several of the posts about the save often and Ctl>S, I am now saving very frequently.  I also bought the UPS as additional insurance.  But...since making these changes, we've not have one power outage!!  However, with winter coming and some good heavy snow storms, I'm sure I'll see how well this UPS works!

Cheers.

Christine

[Ausimax]

Hi glennab,

Yes you have to make sure your UPS is charged for safety, though it is really unfortunate to have another glitch before it is, though the UPS should charge even if the computer is being used as it only needs a trickle charge not full power to charge.

Christine, the UPS should work well to protect you from loss of work due to power failure, however, don't rely on it to protect your system from damage in storms.

Several years ago we lost two computers and ancillary equipment in a storm, and we were using a UPS. The power had gone down and we had shut down the computers, we were on dial-up Internet at the time and in the dark forgot to unplug the modem from the phone line.

We suffered a lightning strike on our underground phone line 128 meters from the house, The phone line was "protected" by the UPS supposedly, the charge destroyed the modem, my computer and travelled through the network cable and destroyed my wifes computer, the printers, scanner and radio keyboard & mouse.

The two phones connected suffered no damage, figures, guess which costs less to replace a phone or a computer?

I now have a UPS connected through a surge protected power-board (heavy duty) and at the first rumble of thunder everything is switched off and unplugged.

Max

[Kenny]

Max, it's a good idea to unplug everything..ESPECIALLY the phone line. Most surges come through the phone. I cant count how many modems I've seen fried due to a surge. If it's bad enough it can also kill the motherboard

Surge protectors are nice for small fluctuations, but they shouldn't be relied on during a storm. Some of the better surge protectors and UPS' come with a warranty to replace anything destroyed during a surge. This isn't because the surge protector is any better than the others, basically you're purchasing a small insurance policy.

Still, it's best to just unplug during an electrical storm. Even if you're not out any money to replace your equipment, the downtime during replacement and the possibility of losing all your data isn't worth it.