Back Up or Lose More Than You Expect

Computer tragedy finally happened to me! My first computer was given to me by my parents in 1987, yes we had computers. We had the fancy upgraded one that had an “amber” screen and the improved graphics to play computer Tennis. But, other than those two features, there was word processing and games that consisted of word clues that followed the “C: prompt” and you had to use your imagination to “see” the game.

I have had numerous versions over the years and for my birthday two years ago, I received the latest and greatest as a gift. It was beautiful, with a 24″ screen and the whole computer was in the 2″ space behind the screen. Every time I sat down to it, I was grateful. As the weeks unrolled and the work I did began to fill the hard drive, glitches started appearing. I would call tech support and they would assure me that everything was fine. Then my external hard drive started filling too quickly and not purging correctly upon backing up. I ignored it and kept working. After all I have had a computer for over 22 years and nothing adverse had ever happened to my files. The errors continued and I had to have work done twice to fix hardware that failed. A small twinge kept telling me to take care of my back up issue. I decided that I had better get a larger external HD and made arrangements to sell my 250 GB to a friend. I wiped it clean and was going to pass it on so I could put the money from the sale toward my new one. That very evening when I went to work on the computer I got a big gray screen with a flashing question mark, sounds funny, but I assure you the lump in my throat wasn’t from laughter. I immediately called my tech, he told me the bad news, I had a FRIED hard drive. You’ll instantly think to yourself, “you had everything backed up, right?” Well, I can say yes and NO! Since I had wiped the other without burning everything to CD’s I had nothing! The same day as doing this, it crashes? THAT SAME NIGHT, what are the chances?

COMPLETELY FRIED! The computer is still under warranty so I took it right in for repair and any retrieval they might be able to do. NO BACK UP and a fried hard drive is a writer’s and business owners worst nightmare. I threw a really big internal tantrum, asking WHY? The timing is unbelievable, I mean really… how often could that possibly happen to ANYONE! Well… according to the Mac experts, NEVER! They have never seen this happen since opening 10 years ago, EVER! After my tantrum, I resigned to the inevitable and let it go. I prayed that maybe just my photos could be saved, that I could start over with everything else. As it turns out my user file was the only thing left, therefore my personal files were transferrable and safe. Thankfulness washed over me. 12 years worth of photographs were okay and the website was still intact.

I could not spend any time on the computer when I got home with it today, so until this very moment I have been wonderfully optimistic and ready to load all the programs that were wiped out. But, as I sit here the reality has slowly sunk in, my desktop is GONE. Every folder that I have kept here for easy access is gone, no big deal, right? Oh how I wish that were true! Basically everything that I use everyday was on the desktop, I’m sure someone is thinking, “oh, you should never put important things on your desktop!” Well I did! So this is what I am lamenting;

1.   My entire Shop Wise Bags folder, which is every sold invoice, every template I have created, all of my branding, logos, buttons, forms, customers, contacts, contracts and on and on…
2.    Every story my kids have written, including all Homeschool stuff.
3.   Every article I have written in the last five years.
4.   Every assignment from my 4 year writing course.
5.   All my scanned artwork, patterns, garden info, garden catalogs and lists.
6.   All the baby book templates that my mom has developed for her custom children’s keepsake books.
7.   The new Taekwondo curriculum that I wrote for our studio, all our tools, and posters that took four months to develop and write.
8.   Two How-To books that I just completed.
9.   Every button and correspondence I have collected from 7 months of blogging.
10.   Many ebooks and courses that I have bought over the years.

As depressing as this list is, it goes on! I need perspective. I am feeling very upset, but so thankful for what has been saved. I’m trying so hard to be grateful and not dwell on this tragic event. My most prevailing thought is: Why?

Aside from this question, I have finally learned the very real lesson to back everything up, even at the expense of quality CD’s, a larger more expensive hard drive and any other precautions necessary. The advice from the computer store, “get two hard drives, alternate them every other month and then at the end of each year, put one in the safe and get another one. Wow, that would seem like over-kill, but now after loosing thousands of hours worth of work, keepsakes and memories, it seems perfectly acceptable and necessary. Another tidbit to not overlook, CD’s need to be re-burned every 5 or so years, so if you have photos and files on disk, keep a log of when you need to make copies, otherwise your diligence could be lost from aged disks.

Happy Backing Up!!