Sunday, February 22, 2009

Hard Drive Horror

Hi. I've come to brave the dreaded, kids computer and leave an update since I feel like I left everyone hanging.

My laptop is dead. I went to see the apple technician and when I received the news I stood there in a pastey white silence. "DEAD" was scrawled on masking tape over my hardrive. The years of my treatment and recovery, photos, artwork, everything was in there. I guess I looked as traumatized as I was because he hugged me...twice. I couldn't get my words out and just mumbled that I'd had cancer and my life, my coping mechanism was all on there. I don't think I out and out cried but I may have.

Let's call the technician man AL. Al was in one of those famed basements where the computer geeks carry on their own underground societies. Al's computer cubical/workshop type area was covered in memorabilia of traveling the world, trophies and quirky tourist trinkets. He had a real olive branch from Greece, in a ziploc bag taped up with everything else. Al was an extraordinarily kind man with no apparent societal deficiencies so I'm not sure why they keep him in a basement.

Anyway, he gave me the info for a recovery company who may be able to get some data off...for a price. Data recovery is expensive but well worth it if they can actually save my stuff. Luckily I've been sent a stupidly expensive credit card that I didn't know I applied for. Stupid credit card companies. It's the only way I can pay for it at this point.

Luckily I am in the middle of moving my entire household or else I would be...more out of my mind.

Slight tangent alert and a note for Lynne and Jon. My first order of business in my new house will be to dance around naked. I haven't been able to do that in ages because there is too much people traffic through this house, ARRGH! I'm going to crack open the tunes and strip off the clothes as soon as my kids leave for school. It's been a while so I'll avoid any mirrors.

Life is good.

17 comments:

Captain Skulduggery Dug said...

Yay! Dancing naked is good fun.

Jon says "Data will be there on your hard drive, but it's a matter of how much money you'll want to throw at it to get that info back."

My advice is don't throw too much money at it, because although the information is important to you, so is being able to live without being in huge debt to a credit card company.

You're moving house, and starting a fresh. Maybe it's time to lay the past to rest (easier said than done, I know) and leap forward into the new beginnings.

Huge hugs from both of us!

BaldyLocks said...

Glad to hear that the data will still be there! Apparently the hardrive is quite small on my macbook so it will be much less cost than anticipated. I really need my photos back. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Horse Creek Jewelry said...

wow, I hope I never go through that! Thanks for reminding me to back up my computer to the other hard drive.

If you lived here my husband could help you..He is a Network Administrator for a very large company.

Hang in there. I hope it gets better.

Captain Skulduggery Dug said...

I hope you get all the info back, and it doesn't cost to much.

Chrisy said...

Bugger about the computer! You sound so upbeat tho...but maybe that's just hysteria!

Audrey said...

Oh dear!! I hope you can retrieve everything! Have fun dancing (LOL).

High Desert Diva said...

Maybe if you do a computer dance....sort of a rain dance for the computer....yeah....that will probably help.

I hope you get all your info back.

*looks at Mac and wonders how to back everything up*

Sarah and Jon said...

Oh no! Hope you get everything back!

NONtRENDY said...

oh dear... a dead hard drive is my worst nightmare. I have purchased an external hard drive so that my nightmare doesn't come true.

Unknown said...

Arrgh! Been there done that, but since I use those little thumb drives from Geek Squad, wasn't so concerned about info, just the time it took to get everything reorganized on the reformatted drive.
Look into a really good antivirus program as so often, we get bots, spiders, etc. from all the surfing we constantly do. Sure helped me.
Have fun dancing!!

Cthings said...

How frustrating!! Dancing sounds liked a wonderful outlet. Hopefully you get it all back. Take care.

My Inspired Reality said...

Glad you feel like dancing amidst the dead computer:) Yes, data is always there. Perhaps your photos are in a specific folder and you can ask to have only those retrieved - which hopefully will keep costs down. Sending good vibes your way:):)

Anonymous said...

You. Had. No. Backup ?
Nothing burned onto cd ?
Nothing saved to an external drive ?
Thought somehow the computer gods would save you from disaster forever ?

Wow.
Truly. Wow.

Anonymous said...

This comment was not from me.

Jens.

One Mother with Cancer said...

Just stopping in to say hi. Sorry about your computer.

BaldyLocks said...

I have bits and pieces backed up on an external hard drive and CD's but not all of it. I took about a billion and a half photos which may or not be backed up.

Sucks to be me.

Charlotte said...

I hope you do get all your data back and a nice new laptop soon... Guess you could do without the hassle right now!

I had two laptops die on me before I got round to buying an external hard drive - and my current machine's developed a 'personality'!!! Backing up is yet another chore to remember to do! Grrrr!

I hope you're ok and the moving's going well... oh - and that you managed your naked dancing...:-) xx