Thursday, October 16, 2008

Learn from my big mistake...

So, I went back to Best Buy last night to pick up the data back up DVDs on my computer. After 3 hours of being there it now appears the hard drive is also fried along with the motherboard. They're sending the whole computer off to the geek hospital...and for a 'small fee' of $249 - $1000+ they'll also try to retrieve the information that I had failed to back up.

Please...if you guys have ANY kind of information on your computers that you don't have someplace else...stop what you're doing and back it up NOW! Oh, and they said last night that flash sticks can also fail and lose your information as well.

If they can't pull my information off at a cheaper price. I will have lost a whole lot of pictures..included tutorials I was about to post on line, which I can redo. But...pictures that were digitally emailed to me of my Grandparents..my kids as babies..etc..things from family members who have since passed away...and can't be redone. Add to that patterns in progress and other ideas that I've been working on..etc...

Lots of stuff can be redone. That's just a pain to have to go back and redo,...it's the stuff that I can't replace that had me in a big old funk last night.

Learn from my mistakes. Oh, and that means about 500 bookmarks not to mention patterns that I've paid for and downloaded, without printing or saving onto another disk..etc..all gone.

Go...save your stuff...Who knew that when we thought it was just an ac adapter/brick that needed replacing...that I'd lose about 8 years of work and family memories. And..just to show you how dumb I was...on the CF cards for my camera...I'd deleted all my knitting pictures off figuring I had them on my computer already and wanted to reuse the space. Nope..now they're all gone. What an idiot. So...here's your friendly public service announcement...go save your stuff onto a disk. If by some miracle they can pull my stuff off my computer and it's semi affordable...you can bet I'm going to save it not once now..but onto two sets of DVDs. Cuz this is just a big old pain in my backside.

8 comments:

lauriec said...

I feel your pain---twice. July '07 they were able to retrieve everything (for a fee of 200$ or something) & did a system reinstall. Jan. '08 I had a fried hard drive & again, they got everything off for me.


Now I use a 250g external hard drive to back up pics, music, documents & such. I've also taken to printing out patterns from the 'net w/ the web address on them & some are saved on my ipod.

It's a pain sometimes but I'd rather take a few min to back up my stuff than pay the Geek Squad a couple hundred to do it for me!

CT said...

I use an external hard drive as well, since I carry my laptop around a lot and it may be damagen in a thousand ways. I keep photos, my PeDesign 7 program and files and all the patters I download. Music I keep in the laptop itself, because I basically have all the cds I like. I'm sorry to know you are having such trouble! knit on! knit on!!

Tallguy said...

Ah, yes, it's not IF your hard drive will fail, but WHEN. CDs and DVDs are so cheap.. copy everything of value to them. Of course, they don't last very long either, but at least they are off your drive. Make another copy every couple years.

We are slow to learn, aren't we? Very stubborn, some might say.

Marcia said...

Hi. I'm so sorry for your loss, yet so grateful for the serendipitous event of cleaning out my favorites today, when I came across a link to your blog.

I take a buttload of pictures and kind of hoard them on my computer. I haven't backed up in months. I've had this nagging feeling for a week now, to back them up. Especially since some of my favorite shots have been in recent weeks. So today is backup day.

And sorry about your Wolverines. Well, just in a friendly, empathic way, seeing as I'm a State Alum. :-)

Also, I see that you are in CA, but was wondering about that lake picture header. It looks Midwesty/Michigany. (and I know there are but two lakes in Indiana)

LDSVenus said...

:( I'm so sorry that you're motherboard and hard drive went out. Was it age, an electric spike or a virus?

I will now have to try to back my stuff up. Computers are pretty much indespensible now, except of course when they decide to go out on us.

Mimi said...

Yes, and each day I remember something new I have lost so for me it is a gift that keeps giving.

Anonymous said...

Have you heard of Carbonite? It's online backup. The problem with external hard drives, back up discs, etc. is that in the event of a fire or other natural disaster you could still lose everything. (I'm not affiliated with them.)

Shanta Hayes said...

You are such an inspiration to me. I think you are a wonderful person, a great daughter and mom. I hope to be like you some day.