Sunday, June 3, 2007

Do you back up your work? Umm, no.

Well, yesterday I found out that that "no" can cost $600. Yup. My beloved powerbook would not turn on. After several hours of frustration, John & I took our sick little machine to Tekserve in the city. After getting a number and waiting with all the other people holding their sick machines, I was finally told by the technician that it had experienced a "hard drive failure." I said, But it's only 3 years old! He shrugged and told me not to feel too badly, that I was the 17th person that day who had this problem. On top of that - he told me that I should "expect" these machines to fail! Can you believe that? EXPECT them to fail? No, I expect them to work - and keep up - and keep chugging along like one marathon after another. No water, no sleep, no breaks. Work, work, work. Isn't that the point of machines in the first place?! $600 later meant no.

So this "backing up" thing that apparently everyone is supposed to do, but no one ever does, I'm finding is like insurance. Insurance for your stuff, your wallet and your mind. I'm without all my work for 7 days and don't even know if I'll get it all back - ever. Oh, the pain.

Long story short, I'll now be back up queen. Any questions on it, ask me, I'll be an expert in 7 days.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

hi! that happened to my ibook a few years ago, it was terrifying. have you found an easy way to backup yet? I am curious to hear what you have found b/c I have still not gotten around to organizing that. Thanks~

Liz Libré said...

Oh, well you MUST get on that! I am shouting it from the rooftops these days. I actually just randomly asked a girl at the dog park this morning if she backed up her work (she's writing her dissertation). She does. Obviously a better student than I. I just bought an external hard drive by LaCie. I really suggest you do the same. Let my misfortune be your lesson!