death of a computer

[auntiemeesh]

Puddlejumper the laptop is brain dead. It still turns on and boots up, but no one is home and nothing will open. A service call with Dell confirmed that the hard drive is deader than the Wicked Witch of the West.

The good news: Puddlejumper is under warranty, so a new hard drive should be on my doorstep by Saturday, Monday at the latest, at no cost to me.

The bad news: I kinda sorta suck at backing things up, so I've lost a lot. Everything prior to May 2007 is backed up. All my old school stuff and nearly all of my current work stuff is backed up (I lost about half an hour's worth of archives work, nothing to stress about, and thank god I thought to back that up last week, since I hadn't done so in months). Luckily, I've posted lots of Mal picspams, so I should still have all those photos in my photobucket account, but I've lost the vast majority of the pics I've taken with the digital camera. All finished fic has been posted at least to my lj if not elsewhere as well, but I had tons of stuff that was either ideas jotted down to come back to later, or bits of original stuff that I didn't post, as well as some started stories that I always meant to go back to someday. Oh, and two or three albums that I bought off of iTunes and never backed up.

So, I'm bummed. But, I've the new hard drive coming, and this will make me get over my reluctance to buy an external harddrive. Looks like I have a little more shopping to do.

Comments

[shirebound]

I'm really sorry to hear that. :(

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I've become so dependent on my internet connection. It's almost like being blind, now, not having it. I was watching dvds last night and kept wanting to look things up on IMDb and couldn't. I couldn't even find the tech support number for Dell when I needed to call them, since it wasn't in my phone book anywhere. Luckily, I still have friends with internet access to look these things up, lol.

[slightlytookish]

Oh, that's terrible! I'm so sorry to hear that :(

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I find it so hard to believe that up until six or seven years ago I didn't even have a computer and never used one for anything. Now I feel like someone has put my eyes out because I have to go a few days with only the work computer, lol.

[whtmtnwmn.livejournal.com]

Bummer! Sorry that so much is gone...

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

It's frustrating. I'm hoping I can get an external hard drive and try to retrieve some things. I'm not sure how to do that, but I know it can be done.

[antbee362.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Sorry you lost so much. Maybe I should learn from your experience as I am very bad about backing up too. I have had a hard drive for several years but have never plugged it in.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Definitely do that.

[lyda-pearl.livejournal.com]

my Norton software does an automatic backup to my external drive. This is new since i had to scrape it down a few months ago That is the downside to digital v paper, not that peices of paper never got lost (or eaten).

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

So true. Paper has its faults, but it never just spontaneously ceases to exist (although it does slowly burn away over the years, especially if it was crappy paper to begin with).

death of a computer

[arthurfrdent.livejournal.com]

silver lining is that backupdrives are cheaper than dirt, and can be automated to backup, as a mirror. that way you don`t have to care what things need to be backed up, it just does it. sorry it happened, in any case.

Re: death of a computer

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I was looking at external hard drives, but on my budget, they don't really count as cheap, which is why I'd been putting off buying one before. I guess I just need to suck it up and spend the money, though.

Re: death of a computer

[arthurfrdent.livejournal.com]

yeah sorry it looks like $60 is about the range on these sorts of drives... Though that'll get you 250GB. or 320 for a bit more moeny: from wally world some of those have cheap shipping to... it's a though, and HEEEEEYYYY Christmas present from la familia? ;)

Re: death of a computer

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I'm probably not going to wait for Christmas. While I certainly hope this hard drive lasts a good long time, I've learned my lesson. From now on, everything gets backed up.

[grey-wonderer.livejournal.com]

So sorry about your computer. I lost one that way and it was not under warranty. I am very bad about not backing things up.
I'm glad you have the warranty.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I debated renewing the warranty when it expired, but I'm glad I did it.

[ansostuff.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

*hugs you*