The fear... the fear!

So my computer had been acting weird for a while. I knew I needed to format it, but that means spending hours and hours putting back programs and tweaking things and installing all the security updates yada yada yada, and I couldn't spare the time.

But then the spell check stopped working in MS Word, and it was one of things that was just irritating enough to distract me.

So I backed up everything. I pulled My Docs over to my other partition, saved my emails, formatted the c: drive, and reinstalled everything. I was up to midnight installing the updates.

There's nothing like the speed and reliability of a newly formatted machine. It makes all the hassle seem worthwhile.

So I crank up the old comp this morning and load up my Eberron book. I have a glance at the word count.

20, 546.

My heart clutches in my chest. But then I think, no, that can't be right.

I close the file and reopen it.

Still 20, 546. I seem to have misplaced a substantial portion of my book. Did I delete it? Has something gone wrong with the partition? Did I panic? Me?

Yup.

Briefly. Until I realized that I'd brought across an old My Documents folder that I'd backed up some weeks before.

But those few moments of blind, breath-stealing panic. Urgh. It's a feeling that only hits when I lose some writing. But this was a hell've a lot worse, seeing as my deadline is under two months away.

But thankfully everything is there. And if you're reading this, go back up your stuff. Just in case.