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title: recovering after disaster
---

# Recovering After Disaster

## you just had a database problem

I have helped quite a few users recover a mangled database from disk failure or accidental deletion. You just had similar and have been pointed here. This is a simple spiel on the next step that I, hydev, like to give people once we are done.

## what next?

![](images/sanic_pain.jpg)

When I was younger, I lost a disk with about 75,000 curated files. It really sucks to go through, and whether you have only had a brush with death or lost tens or hundreds of thousands of files, I know exactly how you have been feeling. The only thing you can change now is the future. Let's make sure it does not happen again.

The good news is the memory of that sinking 'oh shit' feeling is a great motivator. You don't want to feel that way again, so use that to set up and maintain a proper backup regime. If you have a good backup, the worst case scenario, even if your whole computer blows up, is usually just a week's lost work.

So, plan to get a good external USB drive and figure out a backup script and a reminder to ensure you never forget to run it. Having a 'backup day' in your schedule works well, and you can fold in other jobs like computer updates and restarts at the same time. It takes a bit of extra 'computer budget' every year and a few minutes a week, but it is absolutely worth the peace of mind it brings.

Here's the [how to backup](getting_started_installing.md#backing_up) help, if you want to revisit it. If you would like help setting up FreeFileSync or ToDoList or other similar software, let me know.

This is also a great time to think about backing up other things in your life. All of your documents, family photos, your password manager file--are they backed up? Would you be ok with losing them if their drive failed tomorrow? Movies and music will need a real drive, but your smaller things like documents can also fit on an (encrypted) USB stick that you can put in your wallet or keychain.
