My hard drive is dead. Intensely dead. Parrot in a Monty Python sketch dead. This means my easy access to my thesis written under the guidance of Jane Urquhart and my previous work is no more.
The work itself lives on, I hope. I'll be spending the next few days scouring my half-unpacked apartment for any usb keys, my email for sent attachments, and the hearts and inboxes of friends and family for rough work and sympathy. At the very least, I have a hardcover copy of the thesis, so I didn't actually cry when the guy at Best Buy confirmed my fears. I have noticed that since then I have strange aches as if I've been clenching with grief and Luddite rage, which I probably have. The guy at the counter confided his own hard drive had died earlier this week and that he had no less than six external hard drives at home.
On the positive side, once the computer comes back and I obsessively back up my files as they come back / start anew, I have a lot of gigabytes to fill. I feel energized both by my panic and the kick-ass pencil skirt I bought from Weezi in the belief that after paying the equivalent of my rent in repairs and equipment, a) one sweet skirt will probably kick up my words per minute and b) my budget is reeling drunkenly already, so why not?
In the mean time, I have some outbox scavenging to do, Mad Max-style. I'll give my external hard drive a mohawk to get in the spirit of things.
Dear Meghan,
ReplyDeleteFirst, I'm reading!
In any case, Sean and I just lost something like 6TB of data, none of which was nearly as important as your masterpieces, but still incredibly tragic.
Have you heard of Drobo? It's definitely an investment, but it's probably the best data backup/storage unit you can get. Basically, it spreads your data out over four (or more, if you're so inclined) separate hard drives so that if any one of them dies, you DO NOT lose your stuff. It's also unaffected if your computer outright dies. We sleep more soundly at night now because of it.
Like I said, not exactly cheap (ours was $400 plus the cost of the drives), but where your files are kind of your lifeblood, it might be worth looking into sometime in the future. And no, I'm not on their payroll, I just think it's a really good idea!
Also, you're lovely.
Love,
Jenna
Oh! I almost forgot.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, you should open up a Dropbox account. It has saved my ass many a time. It works just like a folder on your computer, and backs your files up to the internet. You can log in from any computer and have your files right there. They also auto-update if you make any changes. I keep all my school stuff in it.
The best part? It's free. You'll get extra space if you sign up through this link, too: http://db.tt/ye0yjQL
I'm done being helpful today, unless of course you solicit my help!
Love again,
Jenna