Every other day for the last month I said to myself (and my husband) "I really need to back up my computer." But I didn't do it. It takes so long. And I couldn't even remember where the cords to the external hard drive were. And I would just do it next week. And now it's next week...and I'm the girl who didn't back up her computer and risks losing everything on it.
Monday evening I was listening to Pandora, and a song I didn't like came on. When I went to fast forward the song, I realized my computer had locked up. I waited and tried what I could, but finally I ended up doing a hard shut down and restarting. When I restarted this menu came up:
I used my phone to make an appointment with the Apple Store for Tuesday afternoon. I trekked there with all three kids and high hopes for my computer. I wasn't worried. I figured the genius could just reinstall an operating system to my computer and we would be on our merry way. The big kids were awesome and played with the iPads while the genius (who was like some 20 year old kid) worked on my computer. He told me my hard drive was fine, which was a really good thing (score!). However, when he tried ot reload the operating system, it wouldn't work...I don't know computer lingo, but it just woudn't work. In order for it to work they would need to wipe my computer clean, then reinstall it. Wait. WHAT. Wipe it clean???? We are taking like tens of thousands of photos. Now I'm irresponsible...but I'm not so irresponsible that I've never backed up my computer...I do have an external hard drive with a lot of info on it. I just don't know when I last performed a backup. It might have been six months ago. It might have been a year ago. A year. That means my son's entire first year would be gone. I did indeed cry in the middle of the Apple store. Poor 20 year old genius.
The genius said that a data recovery system would be definitely able to get my files (FYI, he tried to find them, but could not...it's not like he just jumped to the "wipe it clean" thing...I just don't know all the technicalities to explain them here...it was, however, the last resort.) but it would cost me at the absolute cheapest probably $800. I still need to figure out when my last backup was onto my external drive and decide what I'm going to do. I think I will probably take it in for an estimate. We shall see. How do you put a price on the photos of your baby's first year??
For now, I've resurrected my like six-year old-laptop that we shelved when I got the last one. It's soooo slow and so old that the operating system won't support Google Chrome, and I can't for the life of me figure out how do basic tasks like how to highlight sections, which is why this isn't formatted like most of my posts. (I usually italicize things in parentheses. Yes, I know this is not the correct way to write, but it's my blog and I can do what I want to!) ;) I have so many layouts due and no photos and no way to die cut on my Cameo. I'm jokingly told a friend today that I am in the "denial" stage of grief. I'm so mad at myself. I feel so stupid. I knew this could happen. I knew I needed to do a backup. I just didn't. So...learn from my mistakes. Go backup your computer. Do it now. For me. For you.
