Trying to learn a new skill deeply, with a family to support, in 2020 of all years, while networking with others and job hunting, well...it was bound to happen.
I had my Linux VM setup on my Windows machine. Was doing all of my development and training on Linux, when I lost months of notes, files and projects.
I suppose I had it coming to me, working in Linux was something I only started at the end of 2019 because that was how Hack Reactor taught (either on a Mac or Linux). Finding this out mid-stream meant I had to setup Linux in a hurry, and I didn't bother with a backup option. (I'm really not that sloppy.) Months ago, I had tried to connect my Linux VM to my home network USB HD drives, but I could find no solution there, so I went back to the grind, crossing my fingers it would all be okay.
I must have uncrossed my fingers at some point.
Still not sure what happened, but it would appear that all of my changes were lost since the prior Snapshot taken on Virtual Box. The worst part of it all were the copious notes I had taken during my learning process.
But, as it happens, Win 10 is working just fine for web development, and I won't be developing in Linux until I have a moment to get that network problem figured out and back up like I should have done from the beginning.
Learn from me and don't wait 10 months to backup your work and end up losing 6 months of notes.
Top comments (4)
Ouch! Yeah, it doesn't take losing work too many times before you learn to never let it happen again. A couple suggestions... If you want to develop in Linux but are stuck with Windows 10, give WSL 2 + Windows Terminal a try--it runs the Linux kernel within Windows. Also, source control--like on a private GitHub repo--can be built-in backups, especially if you get in the habit of committing & pushing daily.
Thanks for the tips. Yes, I haven't ever pushed up all of my projects to GitHub, but I may do that more often. Though I hear that you also want to have a good looking GitHub, so perhaps I keep the junky ones private?
I've tried using WSL in the past, but ran into some issues with it. Using the bash terminal within Windows seems to work well enough, and I'm using the Hyper terminal.
You're welcome! If you're using Bash, you're probably using WSL, unless you mean Git Bash. Yeah, you can still push repos to GitHub & mark them as private there, so no one but you will see the junky ones, but they can still count in your contributions graph.
Ah, yes, Git Bash it would be.