So, I arrived home from my great Oregon adventure two nights ago. After some hugs and "missed ya's" and hints of parties that I just don't want to even know about I was finally able to sneak away from my family and head to my studio (aka the room that used to be called the garage)
which felt oddly quiet with the computer screen blank and I felt oddly disconnected after only 4 days away (more proof that this room is starting to feel alot more like WORK and alot less like fun these days).
I pushed the start-up button on my Gateway and waited to reconnect with the world... and ... NOTHING happened... before I had time to analyze the situation (ie PANIC) hubby caught up with me (it was after midnight) and demanded (ie pleaded) for me to go to bed with him -
(totally NOT what you are thinking)
he confessed that he had tossed and turned all night without me (I did NOT confess that I had slept like a rock without him), so I went off to bed convincing myself that pup Olive had pulled a plug and that my life was not about to implode.
(how long ago HAD I backed anything up, anyway?)
Fast forward about 7 hours and $70.00 later and I am on the phone with a Gateway tech named Tommy.
Now, in the normal, real world I would NOT be taking advice from anyone who called himself Tommy- well, not since 6th grade anyway and would likely be trying to get past Tommy to a Tom or a Thomas or a Thomasina but in the techie world the people named Tommy and Billy and Jimmy are king and I am immediately convinced that he knows what he is doing.
(Note- I never trust anyone over 30 with my computer and drive my hubby crazy when I ignore his advice for that of my 12 year old neighbor Lucy)
Dead motherboard (really bad), maybe dead harddrive (really, really bad), since all of Tommy's diagnoses (is that a word?) involve the world "dead" as in NOT COMING BACK TO LIFE - this is all very bad news.
I wish I could wrap this up with a happy ending, but right now I am still in the middle of "the crash" and using a VERY old computer and my laptop in some strange combination with each other that has me tripping over cords and attempting some leftie mouse maneuvers AND doing really fast research on a new system. Luckily, I do have ALOT backed up on my external- unluckily I do NOT have everything backed up.
Looking at the bright side of all of this-
(yes, I am a very Pollyanna type personality who always looks on the bright side in case you hadn't noticed this about me before)
at least this crash didn't involve the airplane I was on the other day because to be honest with you I never listen to those crash procedures and would be looking around for a 12 year old to tell me what to do- they always seem to be paying attention ....
Me meeting my new little mini me in Oregon pre-crash (Elise daughter of ButtonEnvy's Miranda)
Some Etsy crash survival gear:
1. Lost by YaelFran
2. Crash Pin By Hariette Estelle Berman
3. CrashTest Dummy Shirt by DesignedThreads
4. Crash and Burn Notecard by GramkinPaperStudio
5. Crashing Waves Pendant by Chickory
6. Laptop Vinyl by Vinylville
3 comments
if something had to crash let it be your computer and not your plane!
It was quite interesting reading this (in fact, I laughed a lot, not at your misfortune, but at your telling), and I got my hubby to read it (who grinned). The reason being, he is a 36 year Infrastructure Systems Manager/Specialist, and an expert in his field, and works for the biggest independant media company in the UK. His views: for the most part, yeah, young techies are on the ball, up to date etc. Howeveeer, he says the problem with them is, that they give up too easily, and if the standard fixes don't work, then it's a case of 'let's format the hard drive and see what happens'. They are impetuous and have a 'cavalier' attitude to data loss. Where as older tecnicians who have been there, done that know far more techniques and have far more eperience in how to recover data.
I know from my own experience with Luke, when peeps have come running to him in blind panic when their computers have died and told him that everything is 'gone', he has ALWAYS found a way to recover the data, that's his experience working for him.
In my personal experience having been a PC user since forever..that techies on the phone are a bunch of monkeys for the most part and think that users are a bunch of 'dribblers'!
However, you do occasionally get one worth his paycheque, just not often.
Anyway, hope you get your situation sorted, just wish you were this side of pond and I could be more help..
Lorrie
xxx
Thanks Lorrie- I wish I was there, too! I did find a computer guy who is going to save my data (thinking positive here) and he is WAY, WAY over 30- so I think your hubby is right about the young techies giving up too easily. Now my biggest problem is that everything I run is not compatible with Vista - or so I have been told- we will see- since I just installed my OLD photoshop on my NEW computer (was told it would not install and run properly) and it seems to be running just fine....
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