First I will start this off by saying that I did not freak out. At all. Ask Tom and he'll tell you that I was as cool as a cucumber. As I slowly realize what I actually did lose, there's more of a sadness that the stuff is gone, but still no freaking out.
So this laptop (well, that laptop - I'm using the boys' computer now - the I doesn't always work and the monitor has given up showing all the colors at the same time) is four years and about two months old. It's a Dell, and aside from a space issue (not their fault) a screen problem, and a keyboard problem (both covered under Dell's super fantastic warranty and fixed basically the next day) , this computer has done well by me. We even named her Aphrodite for networking purposes. Anyway, good computer. Recently we replaced the fan and I mentioned in an offhand kind of way that I was glad that it wasn't the hard drive that broke, so I guess that in my mind I knew what was about to happen. Regardless, right after the fan failed I started transferring MOST of what I have data wise onto a second, external drive. This meant that when the drive failed two days ago I stood there, making Cherry Jello, and didn't really blink when Tom came and told me that it really was dead this time. The part that is really terrible? Remember the age of the computer - 4 years 2 months? Well, we had a FOUR YEAR WARRANTY that insured against everything from a screen failure to a hard drive crash to a peanut butter sandwich being shoved in the CD - Rom (Yes, Tom asked). Our super warranty expired all of about 6 weeks ago, and I believe the computer knows this. Anyway, any problems from here on out are on our tab - no friendly Dell tech help or replacement parts for free. No service men showing up here to make the repairs, and certainly no overnight parts.
Then I started thinking about what I did lose - a few things, but most replaceable. I lost all of my music. Bummer, but a bunch is on my MP3 player, so that's not a big deal. All of my MOMS Club stuff is gone too. That's not a bummer for me as I've stepped down from Activities Coordinator, but the next person will have to reinvent the entire wheel for each activity - all the canned descriptions just disappeared. All of my Flip Videos are gone. This really does kinda bum me out. With the exception of about five that I've shared here and have saved on You Tube, all the rest are gone. Soccer games, the little boys singing songs in school - it's all gone. But, I have pics of all those events, so we're OK there. The biggest hit was that all of my scrapbooking business stuff went bye-bye when the drive crashed. All of my records, customer info, sales receipts, tax info, inventory, downline stuff, everything, is now gone. Talk about a setback. This one will take a bit to recover from. Fortunately, I'll bounce back and can easily redo some stuff and recreate other things.
So in the end, I have my pictures, and we are on the hunt for a better way to back all this up. I need LOTS of storage space but I'm being cheap about this. I shouldn't have to pay the price of a brand spanking new computer to simply back up what currently have. But in the end you know that I'll pay whatever price now that I have had a close call.
Oh, and if you were in my address book and you are reading this, well, you need to e-mail me all your info. I lost my entire address book too...
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