I have some exciting news bubbling to the surface which I can't share for a few more days. Unfortunately, I’m under the wire to meet a couple of deadlines and time is running out. So I’m recycling an old blog. Remember - old blogs never die, but people sure like to comment about them!

One minute it was here, the next it was gone. As in "lost in cyberspace" gone. Forever. Non-recoverable. All those months of relentless BICHOK. And not a thing to show for it except a hazy memory.

Has this ever happened to you? I was < this > close to complete disaster before I went to my local RWA chapter monthly meeting and learned about Dropbox, a free online file backup, file sharing, and file syncing service.

I originally wanted Dropbox because I’d just purchased a laptop and needed an easy way to sync between computers. This nifty app offers 2 GB of free storage. For a small fee, you can upgrade to 100 gigabytes.

After a very easy download from the website, I invested a few minutes in transferring my completed manuscripts as well as two WIP. Because I wanted access to many of my photos from either computer, I put them in a folder, too. And thank goodness I did.

Less than two weeks after setting up remote storage, my desktop crashed. The hard drive was fried. My writing would have been lost had I not utilized this wonderful little program.

We all have those flashes of brilliance when words pour onto the page in perfect symmetry. Five minutes later, we try to recreate it but it’s never quite the same. It’s hard to capture the same essence. So to lose an entire chapter, or worse, and then try to write it again is almost impossible.

With Dropbox, I no longer worry.

It's compatible with Windows, MAC and Linux and offers a mobile app for Android.
Here's the way it works. You download the program to your computer. If you need to sync files to more than one laptop or desktop, you simply set them up as a network. All you have to do is link with your user name and password. If you’re working on a WIP at the coffee shop, it will automatically sync to the folder on your desktop as soon as internet connection is activated. And it only syncs the files you've added or revised, not the entire folder.

Another great use of this program is for multiple users who wish to work on the same file. One of my friends collaborates with her daughter. They each edit a portion of their manuscript, save it, and within minutes the other person can see what they've written. Public and private folders are available, depending on your needs.

There are other programs with similar functions. I happen to love Dropbox which is why I wrote about it. But to be fair, you can research Evernote, Mozy, SugarSync, Carbonite and several others. If you’re currently writing without an external backup for your work, I encourage you to try one of these services.

For detailed information about Dropbox, visit www.dropbox.com

Don't wait for your computer to crash.

Deb Sanders aka Alexis Thomas