Computer Woes

It all began when I decided to get a laptop computer. Highly excited about a free G4 Titanium, I quickly copied the files from my iMac to a firewire drive. For those of you who are computer illiterate, I apologize. Imagine the firewire drive as a trash-compactor esque file cabinet. Nonetheless, I thought I had copied the files from one computer to the other, when I learned that I was, in fact, mistaken. Mind you, the transfer attempt occurred just after I had moved from one dorm to the other, and just before I was supposed to turn in a 23 page paper I had written days earlier.

After more hours of moving than I care to think about, I decided that I had copied everything I needed from my iMac and proceeded to initialize the hard drive. It was not until the following afternoon, in my haste to show my friends the cool new OS X operating system and my beautiful new computer that I realized something was missing. After searching through my drive for any trace of the missing files, I let out a hefty sob. My friends gathered round, wondering why I was crying? I knew, with that sinking feeling you get when you know that you threw out your birth certificate the morning of garbage day, that my beloved paper was gone. After I got over the initial shock, I went into troubleshoot mode. I called some friends and pleaded for their help. Many hours later, it was clear that there was nothing we could do to retrieve this paper.

It was a very long evening after I realized this. Many events transpired that I wish I could forever forget, nonetheless, the story continues. The following day, I called Apple's Support line begging for any ideas on retrieving my perpetually lost data. The man on the line informed me that there was nothing he could do, but that he did know of one company, DriveSavers®. I quickly called this company, desperate for advice on my dillema. It was not until the next business day that I reached a human being and began the process of data recovery. Knowing I had to be at work, I got ready and rushed over to the computer lab, hoping to get there before training started. I informed my boss that I was in dire need of a static strap and a tool kit. With these essentials in hand, I went to work. After enlisting my (G-dsent) friends help to remove the hard drive, I placed it in a static safe bag and shipped it to the headquarters in Novato, Ca.

Many phone calls, many sobs, three days, not to mention $1000 later, my drive was back. But this was not the end of my computer trouble. The drive was back, but the labels of files were not. I am still sorting through this data searching for various documents I've created over the years. Yet again, however, there were problems.

Short version: A program would not work and had an error message I had never seen. I called the company and was on the phone for a total of four hours with three different people. Now, I learn that my new computer has some challenges and that my old computer is so far gone that it was kind of amazing I managed to get what I did. My favorite feature of the beloved iMac is that it apparently eats disks. I do not mean that it takes disks and they must be pried out. No. I mean that the disk is actually partially ripped up by the lovely CD Drive and then is kept until the CD in question can be pried from the gripping hands of my computer. Other times, it works just fine. You might be asking the moral of my story. Or, if you know me really well, you know that the moral is in the beginning and I just go for the melodrama of a good tale. Nevertheless, I will offer you this moral: Technology is a wonderful thing. It can make life easier, but it can also make life harder. ALWAYS back up your data, but more than that, realize that it's data, it is not the memories that they symblolize that can be forever lost.

As if I had not been through enought with the poor machine, I later found out that my laptop would not shut down. This posed great problems in that it couldn't be woken up if it was closed. I thus sent my beloved computer away. It came back and seemed to be perfect.

Not long after this, I discovered that the pin on the power supply had broken off and I thought it was stuck in the machine. As it turns out, I was wrong. Long story, but the computer was gone, then shipped to the wrong place. I eventually got it, so I suppose it all turned out for the best. Alas, I beg of you to carefully guard your beloved computers. Peace.

Becca