One thing that sounds silly but is actually a great source of anxiety for me right now is storing my data. Last semester, one of my professors exhorted us to have the data, a backup file, a backup to the backup, and a backup to the backup to the backup. Why the extreme nature of precautions? Because, he explained, field notes and audio files are not like experimental variables. If you lose data in a replicable experiment, it sucks to be sure, but you can also run the experiment again. If your fieldnotes, et cetera, are destroyed, there is no way to ever recover that data. They’re just gone forever. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
I was thinking about this yesterday, because the fire alarm went off at 10 a.m. I neglected to grab my laptop on the way out the door, and could have killed myself for not doing so. Of course, no dissertation is worth dying over, and I did store my audio files in cyberspace, so that is some consolation (yes, it was a real fire, and no, my computer didn’t burn to a crisp). However, I still can’t believe how stupid I was to not think to grab the laptop.
In light of these events, I have come up with a plan. I have the audio files and transcriptions on my laptop’s hard drive. I also have them stored in a separate email account. I intend to purchase an external hard drive and leave it in North Carolina with my parents. Finally, I am going to print out everything I type each day and store it in my refrigerator. Yes, this last one sounds stupid, but think about it—have you ever seen a refrigerator burn in a house fire? It’s usually the only thing left standing—way more fireproof than our “fireproof for 15 minutes” document box. If I have any other ideas regarding clever storage options, I’ll be sure and post them.
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