The importance of backing up your files
Last summer I bought an external hard drive with 80 GB of memory so that I may back up my files better than just putting everything on CDs.
I backed up faithfully every weekend for, *gasp*, 1 weekend.
A couple nights ago my newer, kick-butt, expensive computer decided that something had gotten into its innards that it didn't approve of, and like a wounded duck, it crashed hard. The bug or virus or whatever caused the dang thing to die wouldn't even allow me to start the slab of technology up in "Safe Mode."
It attempted to come up when I pressed the "ON" button, flashing that familiar Windows Logo, and then darkened and the screen kindly explained to me that for some reason it was unable to launch. The DOS-like paragraphing then gave me five options regarding what to do, one of which was to start the system using the configuration that last worked. Sounded good to me, but alas, eventually I discovered that none of the methods worked, nor anything else that myself, or any of my friends were aware of.
I was ready to spend money I don't have and hand it over to the "experts" when I suddenly realized, even if I used the technogeeks at the local laptop repair shop, I probably lost everything. And I don't have the money to be taking my trusty laptop in anywhere. So I did the only thing I knew would work. A full system recovery.
To do a system recovery, the hard drive must be re-formatted, which means erasing everything that was ever on it, and then the system would return my computer to the way it was when the store received it from the manufacturer.
So here I am, on my old laptop, typing away on my blog because my newer computer (okay, two years old, but that's relatively new to me) is too dumb to figure out how to get on the internet, or how to install its hardware without the internet because it still believes it is brand new.
So, do yourself a favor, especially if you write as much as I do, back up your files. Back them up daily, if you have to. It really stinks, and crushes your insides, when something like a crashing computer takes away all of your hard work.
I backed up faithfully every weekend for, *gasp*, 1 weekend.
A couple nights ago my newer, kick-butt, expensive computer decided that something had gotten into its innards that it didn't approve of, and like a wounded duck, it crashed hard. The bug or virus or whatever caused the dang thing to die wouldn't even allow me to start the slab of technology up in "Safe Mode."
It attempted to come up when I pressed the "ON" button, flashing that familiar Windows Logo, and then darkened and the screen kindly explained to me that for some reason it was unable to launch. The DOS-like paragraphing then gave me five options regarding what to do, one of which was to start the system using the configuration that last worked. Sounded good to me, but alas, eventually I discovered that none of the methods worked, nor anything else that myself, or any of my friends were aware of.
I was ready to spend money I don't have and hand it over to the "experts" when I suddenly realized, even if I used the technogeeks at the local laptop repair shop, I probably lost everything. And I don't have the money to be taking my trusty laptop in anywhere. So I did the only thing I knew would work. A full system recovery.
To do a system recovery, the hard drive must be re-formatted, which means erasing everything that was ever on it, and then the system would return my computer to the way it was when the store received it from the manufacturer.
So here I am, on my old laptop, typing away on my blog because my newer computer (okay, two years old, but that's relatively new to me) is too dumb to figure out how to get on the internet, or how to install its hardware without the internet because it still believes it is brand new.
So, do yourself a favor, especially if you write as much as I do, back up your files. Back them up daily, if you have to. It really stinks, and crushes your insides, when something like a crashing computer takes away all of your hard work.
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