Losing early modern history files

It is embarrassing to admit it but a couple of weeks ago I found that I could no longer access my most recently acquired external hard drive. Nothing I have tried to regain access has worked, including uttering sharp words to it. Losing terabytes of material - documents, drafts, photographs - is a disagreeable experience. Fortunately, I have kept DVDs, CD-Roms, memory sticks and a few external hard drives stretching back to the late-1980s. I even have a TIme portable laptop that still works from 2001. The latter has yeilded up a substantial number of files since this morning that I am going to copy to other electronic archives. But it is a tedious business repeating this process. Still it has to be done before I can go on to work on the Virginia Company of London's fall and dissolution and deal with the extraodinarily log-lasting hagiography surrounding the activities of Sir Edwin Sandys and his allies. (Fair warning has been given here.)

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