How to Avoid SCDPA

Have you been living recklessly?

Playing fast and lose with your future and not done anything about it?

I know how you feel. I’ve lived dangerously for a few years now, trusting luck and fate that I would be spared exposure to SCDPA again. The last time it happened to me I went into complete shock. It was horrible.

SCDPA is Sudden Computer Death Panic Attack -- a very real concern for authors, or computer users of any type when their beloved PC fails them.

If you’ve experienced a SCDPA you know it’s not pretty:

*  Irrational anger

*  Hyperventilization

*  Overdose of chocolate and ice cream to ease the pain

*  Sudden onset of weeping at the loss of thousands of clever words.

Yes, we all know to set a regular computer backup (or at least I hope we all do) but what about the work you’ve done that day that hadn’t backed up yet? My backup runs late in the day. But if the computer stops working suddenly before backup has run, it’s gone forever. But I believe I’ve finally found a pain free solution that will save me future distress.

Enter Dropbox

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you place in your Dropbox folder will automatically save to all linked computers, phones and even the Dropbox website.To start, you sign up via the website and download Dropbox to your computer. You can store up to 2GB of stuff in your Dropbox immediately upon signing up.

Now, I’ve had Dropbox for a little while (it's on my iPhone and iPad) and never realized the full potential until the last two weeks. Over time, my computer files have exploded and I wanted to reorganize with some form of structure. I also wanted them to be accessible on multiple computers (iPad and iPhone too) so if my main computer fried, as my last one's motherboard did, I could be up and running by simply changing computers.

To begin the switch, I set up folders and subdirectories in the Dropbox folder created when I downloaded the program:

>> Books

- Story name (one for each complete title)

- Story ideas (for those notes you’ve jotted down but not written fully)

>> Marketing

- Blog Posts

- Newsletter

- Website

>> Editing/formatting info

>> Research

All the information I refer to regularly, or am currently working on, I shifted and stored in the Dropbox folder. If I use my laptop instead of my desktop, I have everything there waiting. If I’m out and want to check something in my folders, it’s all with me on my iPhone. No more switching flash drives between computers. No more emailing documents to myself.

Also, if you work closely with someone else, you can share documents through the public folder. Dropbox shared folders let you collaborate easily. When someone joins a shared folder, the folder appears inside their Dropbox, and syncs to their computers automatically when they are online.

The beauty of using Dropbox is that the moment I click save while working on a document it is backed up to Dropbox seconds later. Alerts pop up on any linked computers.  Click SAVE >> Dropbox updates. There I just backed up this draft blog post from word with one click.

So if you’re tired of living life dangerously, take a peek at Dropbox.com and see if the program suits you.

This community announcement was brought to you by a recovered SCDPA sufferer in the hopes of preventing further anguish.

Take care and back up your computer now.

Heather Boyd ~ Lady Wicked