Lost My Spreadsheet With My Tested Loads

[tightgroup tiger]

I keep copies of all my documents in three places. I update my files about every 3 months. I also learned the hard way and learned my lesson.

 

[Charlie98]

Being an analog person living in a digital age I have continued with the notebook and lead pencil method of keeping files and have never lost anything. Due to being lazy and not backing up a bunch of pictures to an old external hard drive I lost all of them to a fried hard drive a couple of years ago. Now they go automatically into the cloud. The same would have happened to any reloading files I would have had.

Now that hi-cap flash drives are available at reasonable prices are external hard drives even available anymore?

I have a problem with my scribbling... I can't read it and understand what I was trying to say if I don't transcribe it fairly soon. I also like neatness and orderliness... and that's why everything goes into a spreadsheet.

External HDD's are becoming passee... they have morphed into external SSD's. I have 4 'portable hard drives,' which are actually laptop hard drives in a portable form, using a USB interface cable. As I rotate them out, I'll be replacing them with portable SSD's... no moving parts, no heat, no noise. The issue I have with flash drives is... they are primarily manufactured with very poor NAND, to maintain a price point. Bargain SSD's suffer the same... the NAND or the controller.

 

[Berserker]

I don't back mine up to a thumbdrive enough. I also email stuff to myself. Of course it seems when I need it, I have not done in awhile.

Email you can access anywhere. Yahoo just do a search

 

[sparkyv]

Well I don't feel so odd now. I have the same practices and have the same concerns.

. I do NOT trust 'cloud' anything... all the cloud is, is someone else's computer, and you are putting your data in someone else's hands... which I have a problem with, given security breaches and such.

My actual load and shooting files are on a thumb drive... I don't have anything 'shooting' related on my internet-connected computer. I plug it in when I need to update something, and unplug it otherwise. It also makes my data portable. Thumb drives, however, are notoriously unreliable.... sooooo... I have a backup for my thumb drive, too.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

If anyone needs a ream-size binder let me know. I have a bunch left from when my offices purged our written manuals.

 

[MarshallDodge]

When SSD's became the hot ticket, I bought a high dollar one for my OS drive. Not trusting new tech, I also became a backup fanatic, using one internal standard HDD, and 2 external portable HDD's that are backed up every night. Sure as shootin'... about 8 months later the SSD locked up... the controller went bad. Thankfully, with a new SSD installed, and a 30 minute recovery of my data from my backup source, and I was back in business, with less than a 24 hour loss of data. If I was a backup fanatic prior to that, I became a backup madman after that.

Sure, I have my shooting and load data in an Excel spreadsheet... as well as a hard copy (I don't like to read off the computer... I like PAPER!) But I've also got full images of my OS, as well as my actual files themselves copied onto backup drives. I do NOT trust 'cloud' anything... all the cloud is, is someone else's computer, and you are putting your data in someone else's hands... which I have a problem with, given security breaches and such.

My actual load and shooting files are on a thumb drive... I don't have anything 'shooting' related on my internet-connected computer. I plug it in when I need to update something, and unplug it otherwise. It also makes my data portable. Thumb drives, however, are notoriously unreliable.... sooooo... I have a backup for my thumb drive, too.

What the other posters said is correct... if your computer is configured for it, you may very likely be able to roll back and recover your data, but if the corruption is local (your hard drive,) your files may be borked all the way. Corrupt files can also be a sign that your hard drive is on it's way out... something else to consider.

A couple things-

You do realize that posting to THR is putting gun related data into the cloud?

If your computer is at anytime connected to the internet, it is part of the cloud, and is accessible from those that really want to see your data. You may never know.

What is someone going to do with your load data? Will they use it against you somehow?

I wouldn't put my list of guns with serial numbers out on the internet but I fail to see how load data is going to be an issue.

 

[Kaldor]

Use Google Drive either as a storage location or Sheets as your spreadsheet. Never lose it again, and it's accessible from any device, even if you don't have access to the Internet depending how you set it up.

I used MS Office and Open Office for years, and I got really tired of keeping 2-3 copies of everything backed up at all times and that's even when scripted.

 

[Charlie98]

A couple things-

You do realize that posting to THR is putting gun related data into the cloud?

If your computer is at anytime connected to the internet, it is part of the cloud, and is accessible from those that really want to see your data. You may never know.

What is someone going to do with your load data? Will they use it against you somehow?

I wouldn't put my list of guns with serial numbers out on the internet but I fail to see how load data is going to be an issue.

I'm well aware of what is accessible once you connect to the internet... not only 'out there,' but even in the memory of your computer (not necessarily on the hard drive, if you see the difference.) The idea is to minimize the exposure of your data. For the same reason, I don't have my password spreadsheet saved to my computer, either. Truth be told, it's probably for nothing. My tiny thimble of information in the sea of data is a nothingburger... but, I know for a fact that my computer has been hacked at least twice in 20 years or so... my guess is there is probably already 3 or 4 of 'me' out there on the internet, somewhere.

 

[doubleh]

I have a problem with my scribbling...

As do I and have been accused of being a perfectionist more that once. I learned how to do bookwork back in school when our adding machines were operated with a lever and typewriters were manual. Electric models of both were available but my school was getting the good out of what they had. I was in FFA and we had to keep neat records and I also took a book keeping course for an easy credit. I used to have some artistic talent and it was easy to do things neatly. My school days were lead pencil and fountain pens that leaked ink until ballpoints hit the market while I was in high school and I always got an A+ on penmanship. Now essential tremors have taken away any artistic talent I ever had but I can still print OK. Cursive varies from not too bad to what is this mess now.

 

[Charlie98]

As do I and have been accused of being a perfectionist more that once. I learned how to do bookwork back in school when our adding machines were operated with a lever and typewriters were manual. Electric models of both were available but my school was getting the good out of what they had. I was in FFA and we had to keep neat records and I also took a book keeping course for an easy credit. I used to have some artistic talent and it was easy to do things neatly. My school days were lead pencil and fountain pens that leaked ink until ballpoints hit the market while I was in high school and I always got an A+ on penmanship. Now essential tremors have taken away any artistic talent I ever had but I can still print OK. Cursive varies from not too bad to what is this mess now.

My legibility quotient went up markedly when I took 2 years of drafting. Instead of cursive, I started to print everything... and that helped a lot. FWIW, having to copy my scribbled notes into a more organized list actually helped me retain more of the information... having to read it, and write it all, again.

I joke that typing is the one thing I learned in school that I still use every day... Like you, they made us pound those mechanical typewriters first, before graduating to the electrics.

 

[reddog81]

If you have autosave turned on there is another copy of that file on you machine

I’m not in front of a computer right now but to find where your auto saved files by hitting the File button on the top ribbon, select Options, select Save and it will show where auto saved files are located.

 

[mdi]

I also printed them out and put them in a three ring binder until it (more than one) just got to be too much

Yeah, it could get crowded. I have my book shelves in my shop that have 6 large 3 ring binders. Up on a shelf out of the way. Some are dedicated; one for Garand, one for semi-auto (mostly 9mm) and some for everything else...

 

[Berserker]

I am not into the cloud cause I am lazy. I think I got some stuff getting backed up.

But be realistic, you think they are stealing you load data? IT guy told me once, you got nothing they care about. I got my spreadsheet for my budget, bunch of word docs, ect. 1000 pics of my dog in the recliner next to me.

I have lots of stuff in my yahoo email account. Good thing to do when traveling with info. You can access it anywhere.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

I gave up caring about lost data and files years ago.

I gave up caring about it when the only person doing any backup of the home computer was me and not my wife, even though it was mostly her crap.

I gave up caring about lost data when I provided multiple external hard drives, with backup software on them, and even hooked them up for her and she didn't do anything with them.

I gave up caring when we went through two desktop computer failures and total data loss on both because she wouldn't take the time to back up squat.

I do back up my stuff periodically. But you know what I've discovered? In the grand scheme of things, there's really very little that I couldn't do without if it were lost. In fact, when you think about it, there's really very little digital data most people REALLY need in the first place.

At best, the loss of most data is an annoyance.

If you honestly look at all the digital stuff you have, how much of it is REALLY important? When was the last time you even looked at a lot of it?


Back up what you think is really important.

Then worry about backing up all the other crap as you see fit.

 

[Berserker]

You are right, I can survive anything. I would hate to lose pics the most. Some of the music would be a bummer.

I got with budget/checkbook for last 20 years. But not like I can't balance my checkbook without. As for my camp and hunting logs, I probably enjoying adding the entrees more than review. I like the maintenace log on vehicles, but they won't stop a break down.

Having to go through and relist the the guns would be pain. Just remembering where they all are.


All that said I crate back ups once in awhile, and found big holes too. I am not going to stop my back ups, because someone else does not. That would be like taking my seat belt off, because you don't wear yours.

 

[DMW1116]

I'll pretty much be able to recover all of it except one load for 55 grain FMJ. For whatever reason, I have a range of charges but don't know which one shot best. I'm going to go with what I remember, as it will be close enough.