Let’s face it, we all know we’re supposed to do this thing. We all say we’re going to do it.  Maybe we even get around to crossing the item off our “to-do” list.  However, are we really organizing, managing, and backing up our data?

Who else is a digital hoarder? I’m all about the, “OMG it’s a FREEBEE! I must have it!”

And then it sits around taking up space.  Thank goodness our digital closets are like a gosh-darned bag of holding.

Here’s what happened to my mother in The Great Windows FuBAR of 2015. That’s right… FuBAR.  As much as I’d love to get her off Windows and out of the Microsoft ecosphere, it’s just nigh on impossible.  She’s a gamer (thanks to my encouragement… biggest mistake I probably ever made according to my dad) and she loves to machine embroider like me.  These two things just work better in the Microsoft world, which is why I have a windows computer in my house at all.

Well, along comes Microsoft teasing you from the digital equivalent to the Pedo Van.  Come, try our free Windows 10, they said.  It will be amazing, they said.  And in some ways, it is better.  Though really, that’s not hard.  (Hey guys, remember XP? That was the last good OS you had. Take a look at all the ways you broke it in subsequent years.  Just saying’.)

One of the many problems since upgrading to ten my mother experienced was her embroidery software no longer working. Ahhh, but that’s the risk with an upgrade right? Yeah. Her option was roll back or purchase all new software for high dollar amounts.  She opted for the roll back.

And she’s regretted it ever since.

Somewhere along the way every last embroidery file got corrupted.  Her USB back up drive (also usable with the sewing machine) inconveniently died at the same time.

That’s the luck, right? Figures.

Now she’s stuck trying to recreate her massive collection built from six years of purchases and crying.

Go to Page 2 for my Backup Rules.

Go to Page 3 for my Embroidery Library DIY to learn to convert your library format and my method for organizing.