Nacktschnecken omlet Cube

[poachedegg]

ES rang me this very early this morning (4.20am ), as he was staying at his girlfriends Uni house, they had all been for a night out and got back to find her house has been burgled ........they had only (only?!) taken ES's ipod, his GF's laptop and her friends laptop.

 

Thankfully they were out and are all ok if a bit shocked, but, and this is the point of my post, whilst the items can be replaced, the girls' Uni work was on the laptops, so basically just a bit of advise to make sure students know how to back their work up on a regular basis just in case of loss.

[Egluntyne]

Sorry to hear it. My daughter was burgled just before Christmas. It is a real pain to sort out and very upsetting.

 

Good tip about backing up their work. Material goods can be replaced (Eventually ).

[Treekeeper]

email it home on a regular basis so Daddies can save it for them (we do have our uses) I have an external hard drive that I save all sprogs music work etc on so even if they lose it we still have a copy.

[Chucky Mama]

Sorry to hear that Poached Egg. A very good reminder though how important it is to do regular backups.

[Geoid]

Another idea is to get some free webspace, and upload all your important files onto that, has the added advantage of you beiing able to access it from anywhere with an internet connection

[TAJ]

Over the years I have seen a number of students lose a whole 10,000 word dissertation through computer failure the week before submission without back up (kept away from the computer - otherwise you just lose both copies!)

 

This week a PhD student lost a full 1st draft including all his data results - without the full thing being backed up.

 

Tracy

[poachedegg]

Over the years I have seen a number of students lose a whole 10,000 word dissertation through computer failure the week before submission without back up (kept away from the computer - otherwise you just lose both copies!)

 

This week a PhD student lost a full 1st draft including all his data results - without the full thing being backed up.

 

Tracy

 

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I just asked my ES (1st year at Uni) if he backs up his stuff (using the pen drive I bought him ) and he said he doesn't have anything important on his laptop . Should I be pleased that he won't lose anything if the laptop gets lost/pinched or worried that he's not got any work on it .

[PapaJuliet]

Another idea is to get some free webspace, and upload all your important files onto that, has the added advantage of you beiing able to access it from anywhere with an internet connection

 

Google Docs lets you upload most formats either in their own format or as a native file. A Google Docs document you can edit on-line from anywhere, and can "share" with other people (possible not necessary or a good idea for university work). Other formats you download onto whichever computer you are using to edit.

 

And free.

 

PJ

[docsquid]

Over the years I have seen a number of students lose a whole 10,000 word dissertation through computer failure the week before submission without back up (kept away from the computer - otherwise you just lose both copies!)

 

This week a PhD student lost a full 1st draft including all his data results - without the full thing being backed up.

 

Tracy

 

The answer to this is back it up! An external USB hard drive is incredibly cheap for the amount of space you get, and even a USB memory stick will hold everything you need for a dissertation. Take multiple backups - physical backups on separate drives as well as online/server backups. I'm afraid when I was supervising PhD's I had no sympathy whatsoever for anybody who lost their work through failing to back up - if you are doing a PhD or degree you should be intelligent and organised enough to work this out for yourself, and work out how to do it too! Students were all given advice about backing up at the start of their course, and free space on Uni servers on which to do it - check if your Uni provides such free offline backup space.

 

I do not think the academic staff would look kindly at a failure to back up and you would be expected to complete all your work to deadlines or suffer the consequences.