We spend a lot of time worrying about recovering files we’ve deleted. But what about recovering files we’ve “Saved” accidentally?
It's ironic that clicking “Save”, an action that, by definition, is supposed to keep your data safe, is actually one of the most destructive acts that you can do to your files. When you save a file, the original file is deleted and a new one takes its place. But what if you made a mistake in saving and the original file is what you really wanted?
“Tough luck” and “be more careful” next time has traditionally been the answer!
Unlike the feared “Delete”, saving is easy and almost second nature. There are no safeguards, no warning dialogs, no trash can or recycle bin to recover from, and no recovery/undo if something goes wrong. Backups can help you get back a file version from one month, one week, or one day ago. But they can't help you with getting back a file version from one second ago. This is unfortunate as it is often a number of seconds that make the difference between making a terrible mistake that you can’t recover from.
Many years ago in 2007 when we were first starting Syncplicity, I remember being at a Kinko's at 4am creating packets for our first fund raising round. Raising money is a paperwork intensive process with lots of legal details that have to be followed to the letter. One of these details was ensuring each complicated packet was identical except for a unique tracking number. Attention to small, menial details doesn't generally pair well with sleep deprivation. This night was no exception.
After about an hour and a half of work, to my horror I realized I had been opening the same files but instead of doing a “Save As” to save each edited copy with its own unique name, at some point in the night I had just been clicking “Save”. I had been losing the entire copy of each unique packet as well as its unique tracking code. At that time of night it would have been impossible to repeat all the work.
After a moment of panic, I also remembered I was running an early version of Syncplicity! Because of its realtime sync and continuous data protection, with just a few clicks I was able to retrieve and rename every version of every file for every packet I had been creating. In minutes. Disaster averted!
If I wasn't running Syncplicity at the time, I would have been in deep trouble even with the best of breed backup software of the day.
Given how often people make the mistake of saving, we built Syncplicity to not just give you access to your files on all your computers and mobile devices, but also to help make your computer a more forgiving place to prevent one of the most common forms of data loss. Which, if you're like me, means you get to sleep a little better, and a little longer, at night!
Has something similar happened to you?
Leonard Chung
Co-Founder and Chief Product Strategist
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