If you are a friend of mine on Facebook you will already know that a few weeks back my computer crashed! YES... it crashed... hard! I had used it briefly one night to show Jay some crafty ideas I got off Pinterest and then we went to bed. The next evening Jay wanted to show me something, I can't even remember now what it was that he needed to show me, but I do remember what I saw when he turned my monitor on. A bunch of computer gibberish that translated into
"Windows Sucks"..."FATAL ERROR"!
I freaked out! Thoughts ran through my head, what was on my computer, when was the last back up, Jay is going to kill me... then I threw up! Jay immediately saw my reaction to these horrific words and went into "computer repairman" mode. Jay seems to have many talents and can somehow turn into the exact man you need for every crisis. Since marrying him I've witnessed the Money Fairy, the Vehicle Mechanic, the Builder, the Painter, the Plumber, the Electrician, the Father, the Caregiver, the Boat Mechanic, the Yardman, the Tile Installer, the Pet Expert, the Toy Assembler, the Furniture Maker, the Doctor, the Barber, the Candlestick Maker (not really, but he did make me some sconces once), the Shoe Repair Man, the Leathersmith, the Tax Preparer... and many, many more (which I'm sure he'll remind me of when he reads this). But for this particular night, he had to pull out the computer repairman for the umpteenth time to help me out! Normally, I can fix these problems, but that "Fatal Error" was one I am no longer suppose to mess with. I guess deleting windows completely and reinstalling it is not exactly the proper method of repair! Not only that... but Jay suspected it was much, much more than some little internet virus.
Any way... he removes the hard drive from my beloved black box and proceeds to externally run it from one of his computers. At this point, I'm sniffling from my bed, thinking of all those pictures that are now gone, yet somehow trying to convince myself that my talented man can fix this!! Then I hear it.... "click, click, click, click, click" and some grinding (not sure how to spell out that sound) and I knew... it was a lost cause. I throw up again!
Jay quickly pulls up my last back up... March, 2010, just after Noah was born. A wave of happiness comes across me... "oh thank God, Noah's birth pictures are safe"... then more hysteria.... my last back up was almost TWO years ago! How many times had my darling husband told me to do this? How many times had he tried to hand me one of our external hard drives to hold my back up? How many times did I tell him, "not yet honey, I'm not done organizing pictures and making everything perfect?" Really?! TWO years ago.... my thoughts "oh no, Noah's first and second Easter, his first and second Irish Day, his first and second trip to the zoo, his first haircut, his first and second Christmas... and then... OH MY GOD THE TWINS!!! I throw up again.
Thankfully I also have an impatient husband. Lucky for me, he was tired of waiting to see the twins' birth pictures so he had downloaded them from the camera on to his computer. He was able to find a few pictures from the hospital and their first baths... I cried, and cried and cried. He told me it was nothing I did wrong. My hard drive was just old and you can never tell when these things will just be done.
Between what I loaded to Facebook and Jay's computer we will be able to recover a lot... Noah's first haircut, first Christmas, first Halloween. We took a lot of pictures on our phones to make up for some of what we lost. We have lost roughly a year and a half of Noah's life in between holidays, and we've lost a lot of what I took from the twins. We contacted a company in Texas that may or may not be able to recover our pictures. They slowly rebuild the hard drive until it works and then get what they can, if they can... but for what they charge I have to wonder if it's worth getting back a bunch of pictures of Noah with one eye closed looking hungover... oh but the blackmail I could have had with those! Needless to say, the hard drive is now in a safe location and if we ever run into a little extra cash we may recover those moments... but for now, we have babies to feed, clothe and diaper.
A few days after Y2 Mommy struck, Jay surprised me with yet another trip to Best Buy. I had previously boycotted Best Buy. I hated that store! But here lately they seem to be my saving grace! Jay bought me a new computer. I decided to go with a laptop this time instead of a desktop. I miss my old laptop! On our way out the door, Jay also decided that I need a new phone! He knew I'd had mine for a few years, and it was starting to have a mind of it's own. I was going back and forth between the iPhone 4s and the HTC Evo 3d like Jay has. In the end Jay and I decided I would go with the Photon. It is basically the newest version of my old Droid. I don't have time to learn an entire new phone right now, so the iPhone was out, and I don't really need the 3d feature of the Evo right now. I LOVE my Photon!
During my "down time" from my computer I was able to work on some of those crafts that I had shown to Jay a week before and I'm feeling rather happy about the results. As you can see, I'm back up and running, so maybe I'll post some pictures of my creations soon. I still need to take time to gather all my pictures and documents from my last back up, from Facebook, from Jays computer and from our phones and create a new back up of my treasured memories. Only this time... I'm not going to worry about organizing everything BEFORE making a back up... that is something I can work on over time!!
If any of you family members out there happen to have pictures from Noah's first or second Easter... I might give you a hug!
Moral of this post: Back your computer up.... NOW!!!!!!!!
