(Wtf) The Death and Ressurrection of My NaNo

[black_sluggard]

So, it'll be a surprise to precisely no one that I didn't even make it close to the 50k goal of NaNoWriMo. I did, almost, make it to 5k, but I was struggling with a lot of petty distractions. Mostly my foolish decision to try to put together another D&D game, and my friend buying me a copy of Neverwinter Nights so we could play on the Ravenloft persistant server.

But, then, tragedy struck! As I as trying to clear enough room on my over-stuffed laptop, I somehow managed to bungle things up spectacularly. The result was that the computer would turn on, but that Windows would refuse to boot up, and that running the repair tool would hang on any attempts to return to previous settings. Thus, I was locked out, with all my fic trapped inside.

Now, usually I'm fairly zealous about backing up my fic by emailing them to myself at least once a month (twice, often, if I've been active) but for some reason it seems I'd fallen down on the job. Because when I went to my folders (in late Novermber) I found out that my last back up was made in August. Uch. I was so pissed at myself... Because I'd actually made progrees, not only on my NaNo story, but also on "The Robber Bride Groom", "Grimm Reflections", and "Rosemary". I was so upset thinking I might loose all that work...

But, the computer did turn on, even if it wouldn't boot, so I had the idea of downloading an other OS and trying to boot it from a disc. My only problem was limited net data, so I was forced to wait on the next time my grandmother invited me over in order to try downloading Ubuntu and buring it to a DVD... Only, her DVD burner didn't work. So I copied it to a flash drive, and burned it at home...but...it hung trying to boot Ubuntu as well.

Fortunately, before this I'd successfully burned a CD of something called "Ophcrack" trying (unsuccessfully) to get past a forgotten password on one of my grandmother's computers. It's a specialized version of Linux (I think?) used for findng passwords. While it didn't work for it's intended purpose, it did allow me to boot up my computer using it long enough to get my files back.

Oh, I was so damned happy. There are just not words...

So, as of Monday morning, I've got all my really important files back. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back into some of the stories really soon.