!)(@#&$#+_2=@!$(!@)($&@

[foxmonkey]

It's gone. I've been working on this friggin' Castle challenge story ALL FRIGGIN' WEEKEND, and it's gone.

I've been saving like a good girl, like you're supposed to, because what happens if the power goes off or the computer fails? Gotta save!

I was done. DONE. Hit save one last time to get the last edit, and friggin' Wordpad had a heart attack. Blahblahblah, shutting down. THE BASTARD. I thought, ok, I'll lose my latest edits, no big deal because I've been saving practically every other word, right. Wrong. Opened up the document after the friggin' thing shut down, and it's got a bunch of gobbledeegook at the top of the page. It's gone.

Gone.

Gone. I can't believe it. If I hadn't loaded up a test page last night I wouldn't have *anything.* But as it is, I'd done a day's worth of edits since the test page went up.

I'm nearly in tears, but I'm trying to reproduce what I can remember. And this sucks, because deep in my heart I know it won't be the same as the stuff I lost.

I think I'm going back to pen and paper after this. I can't take this happening again.

:-(

Comments

[runerinrun.livejournal.com]

Do a search on your hard drive for the file name. There may be temporary files saved somewhere else, although I'm not sure if Wordpad does that the same as Word does but it's worth a try!

[batgrrl1975.livejournal.com]

{{{{{Foxmonkey}}}}}

[kaneko.livejournal.com]

Oh you poor thing :(

[kaelie.livejournal.com]

(((foxmonkey)))

I'm so sorry. Did you check your automatic back up files? Try running a search for everything on your hard drive that was touched today - maybe it's still in there somewhere.

[lucylooo.livejournal.com]

That completely and utterly _sucks_, honey. I've cried over more than one lost story myself. I hope you can remember enough to finish, at least. *hugs*

[jewelianna.livejournal.com]

{{Justin hugs}}}

Computers: I still haven't decided if their a gift from heaven or tool of the devil.

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

{{{{{{{{{{{{foxmonkey}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

been there, done that, it sucks so hard. i'm so sorry, honey. maybe you can do a search on the computer, see if the file is lurking somewhere you don't expect it to be?

[foxmonkey.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if it worked - I tried it, and I *think* I got a restored file, but the "restored" one was blank, too. I may have accidentally saved the blank one in my panic and overwritten was was restored, so. :-(

If I could recreate what happened, I'd test it to see if a *real* restored document could be found. Might save some heartache if that happens again.

Thanks for the suggestion; it'll be the *first* thing I do if it does happen again!

[foxmonkey.livejournal.com]

(((tomilee)))

Thanks. :-) Hey, that random out-of-nowhere card that you sent the other day was really sweet. I thanked you in my LJ. Proves that I have a rawkin' friends list. :-)

[foxmonkey.livejournal.com]

I've lost sentences or paragraphs before - due to not saving! - but this is the first time that an entire file has crashed on me.

Hopefully that's the first and last time that'll happen!

[foxmonkey.livejournal.com]

Thanks. (((Lucy)))

Luckily, most of it came back to me, probably because that's all I'd been doing all day. ;-)

It just killed me because I'd been so careful, saving after *every* little change like I usually don't. And then kaboom! I've never lost a whole file before, swear to God, I was thisclose to tears.

[foxmonkey.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thanks for the Justin hugs. :-D

Computers: I still haven't decided if their a gift from heaven or tool of the devil.

I usually think they're a gift from heaven, but that wouldn't have been my vote this afternoon. ;-)

[foxmonkey.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the hugs. (((Kaelie)))

I did the 'search' thing - if there's another, more thorough capability available, I'd love to hear about it! I was pretty frantic, even though I know that panicking isn't the best way to get things done. ;-)

Luckily, I remembered the major stuff. There's a lot of smaller, finesse tweaks that I may have missed, but I went over it with a couple of fine-toothed combs and recreated what I could, and re-edited the rest.

I don't ever want to go through that again. :-(

[foxmonkey.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the sympathy and hugs. :-)

Tried the search thing, but I'm not sure what I actually found, because I'd been freaking and may have saved the blank document again and possibly overwritten the "restored" file. If it indeed existed.

Le sigh.

Hopefully this was a freak occurence that will never, ever happen again. Ever.

[lucylooo.livejournal.com]

I know. I save all the time, too - and then there's the lovely Mystery Keystroke of Doom sequence that happens and erases _everything_, always irretrievably. And then I perform ritual suicide on my keyboard and vow to write everything by hand from now on.