Computer Crash during a translation job - what to do now?
Steven Capsuto United States Local time: 07:05 Member (2004) Spanish to English + ...
Frequent backups
Mar 22, 2011
As I'm working, I make backups every hour or so, either by copying my current work files to an encrypted volume on a flash drive (which I then remove from the computer) or by uploading the partly finished translation to my server every so often.
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Angela Dickson United Kingdom Local time: 12:05 Member French to English + ...
Steps
Mar 22, 2011
Step 1 is to ensure that your rates are high enough, so that you have a financial "cushion" available to cover such situations. If you can pay your rent/mortgage and buy food, but can't afford to go out and buy a new computer straight away if you need one, charge more.
Step 2 is to have a spare computer that works.
Step 3 is to have a good backup solution. At the end of each day I back up everything I've done to a securely encrypted Dropbox folder, which I can access from anywhere.
I feel moderately secure, because I work at a shared office facility and have use of a computer here; I have my old work desktop computer at home, along with my work laptop, both of which function properly; the local library has computers I can use in a real emergency (I've sent a job from their computers once); I have friends locally whose computers I could use if the library stopped existing; and if the library stopped existing and I couldn't use my friends' computers, the likelihood is that something so bad has happened that no-one will care if I don't deliver my translation
It is possible, though, that I could lose up to a day's work, and that does bother me somewhat.
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Heinrich Pesch Finland Local time: 14:05 Member (2003) Finnish to German + ...
Better not to worry
Mar 22, 2011
If I had done backups every hour the last 10 years I would have spend a lot of time on it. I backup my data once a month, if I remember. Never needed them as yet.
My next computer will have solid memory instead of a traditional drive. Till then I save important work on a memory stick until delivery.
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Claire Cox United Kingdom Local time: 12:05 Member (2006) German to English + ...
Cloud and TMs
Mar 22, 2011
Like others, I subscribe to Mozy which backs up my entire computer once a day so that in the event of the unthinkable (computer dying) or worse (house burning down!), all of my files can be securely downloaded from their cloud onto my laptop, notebook or a new/borrowed machine if that's the route I've had to go down. I also back finished files up to CD and ongoing projects to a data pen every night, for immediate reference in case there's a problem first thing in the morning. I've recently installed Dropbox at a client's instigation too and I can see that being a useful way of keeping track of files on the move.
In the shorter term, if Word or another programme simply crashes in the middle of the day, using CAT tools has been a godsend more than once: assuming the hardware is still working, you just reboot and run your file through the TM and there you have your day's work restored - one of the benefits of TMs I hadn't thought about before I started using them, but one I certainly wouldn't be without now!
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Steven Capsuto United States Local time: 07:05 Member (2004) Spanish to English + ...
Not time consuming
Mar 23, 2011
Heinrich Pesch wrote:
If I had done backups every hour the last 10 years I would have spend a lot of time on it.
Uploading my current work file to my server takes 15 seconds. (Less than that if I leave my FTP program open all day.) If I do that seven times a day, I've used up less than two minutes. It seems a good investment of time... especially since I've had to restore from backups a few times in recent years.
[Edited at 2011-03-23 01:08 GMT]
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Lourdes Sanchez United States Local time: 07:05 English to Spanish + ...
it has happened to me
Mar 23, 2011
Besides Jose Henrique's suggestions, always be sure you have a copy of your system in a CD. This is what saved my life. Insert it and it will run your computer for sometime, at least until you copy everything (including your programs) in your external drive.
Now everything I do is saved in my computer and my external drive. I also keep a spare battery and a spare monitor. All my contacts are in my phone which syncs with my computer.
Hope it was helpful
[Edited at 2011-03-23 02:33 GMT]
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Michael Leite Brazil Local time: 08:05 English to Portuguese + ...
Saves
Mar 23, 2011
Hello
I know how it is like, it happened to me about 2 times. It was nice because I learned to save my translations every minute
When the file freezes and you have to close the program without saving the changes, if you have not saved, of course, you'll love everything. So I think the best thing to do is pressing the Save buttom every minute or two or five minutes, whatever you think more suitable.
As people said, backup copies is also a solution. When you reach the half of the document, it is good practice to close the document and send a copy to a flash drive, for example. We never know what can happen.
If you use Trados, the TM stores all the segments, but it would be waste of time to get all the entries from the TM again, depending on the file size. Sometimes the fuzzy and pre-translate do not work properly.
Great issue to discuss.
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