Let this be a lesson to you fanciful artist types out there. Just because you strike a two-hit combo of Ctrl and S, don’t think that somehow, magically, your file has been saved for all eternity. It’s always, always, ALWAYS a great idea to keep at least one backup of your file(s) in case of freak emergencies. As our unfortunate volunteer example, Tom Brazleton of Theater Hopper, will attest to.

He, too, has experienced that moment when you boot up the ol’ hard drive only to hear or see something not at all common. Smoke, clicking sounds, small imp-like creatures, these are just some of the oddities that seem to affect random hard drives around the globe. The problem is, you never know when one might strike next. It’s an unproven science: I could pour water in my hard drive, let it dry out for a few days, put it back in the PC and see no change in performance.

You, on the other hand, could be reading this very post when suddenly, the smoke detectors blares at you and you realize the information, the data that you cherish so much, is going up in smoke.

So, learn from this terrible incident and backup your stuff. Even if it’s sub-par webcomic fare, to you, it’s something special, and if you incur the wrath of the computing gods someday, you’ll be without your precious body of work.

Also, stop by the Theater Hopper site and show Tom some love by donating to his drive to recover that which is hopefully salvageable and enjoy the reward you get for helping out a creator in need.