Fried Computer Sequel

So, the computer fried Monday, April 15. On that Friday I got a SATA cord and was happy to find my data still on the hard drive - since I foolishly had not backed up regularly. I also joined Sam's Club and ordered a new laptop.

That evening I went to a village event where they gave away a bunch of raffle tickets to deposit with various merchants. Monday I got a phone call that I'd won a laptop. At first that seemed ironic, but it's refurbished and, while it is better than what I was using, it's not what I need for work. One of my sons will end up with it. At least it felt less like the tech gods were angry at me.

However, it took another week to get all my data downloaded from the salvaged hard drive to another external drive. You see, I'd had two external drives that I was supposed to be using for weekly backups. I got everything copied onto one and took it to the safety deposit box. Then I started copying files onto the second. It wouldn't take a file with files within files as a whole - I had to go in and copy them one layer at a time. And when I went back, there were files I thought I'd copied that weren't, so maybe I was thinking of putting them on the drive at the bank. I thought I was losing my mind when I seemed to be uploading the same files a third or fourth time... until I realized it was the drive, not me. Maybe there's one tech god still playing with me?

Two weeks out, I had the data copied onto one external drive and my new computer arrived. It took another week with lots of time with Microsoft and Adobe techs to get my software onto the new machine and updates downloaded and adjustments made to the computer software by Microsoft. (There may be a few more of those coming - still having some issues with File Explorer.) I actually started working again Friday, May 3.

I'm limiting how much I actually keep on the computer now. Some will go to the cloud, though I'm trying to keep that limited for privacy reasons. Folders with things I'm actively working on will be saved to a thumb drive and that will be rotated each week. All the background stuff is on the hard drive in the safety deposit box and on the hard drive from the fried computer. I'm getting a case for that and keeping it at home.

Did I mention I also dropped my cell phone in the toilet that first week and had to adjust to a different phone and service? My daughter called me today - only her name didn't pop up and I wondered who was calling me who sounded like my daughter. She was relieved it was a new phone and not the onset of senility. Me too.

Fried Computer

Due to technical difficulties, this is the only blog this week. If you really want me to continue Alice, please leave a comment to that effect. I have not been getting emails from my new website. On Monday, I realized they were not being forwarded and I had no way to access them otherwise.

As I started to deal with that, my laptop screen went black. The base was hot to touch and when I got it to a tech and opened it up, it had obviously overheated and done major damage. Two tech visits and $175 later, I still don't have my files from the hard drive. I do have an old baby laptop fixed up good enough to do email slowly, and my even older VISTA machine that I can use for Word (the baby can't handle book size files, just short docs). The VISTA machine cannot be hooked up to the internet & therefore cannot print to my new printer. I downloaded Word onto the baby so I can move files there for printing via thumb drives. The first tech said to go buy a new computer; the second said that even though I need a significant number of parts, if I rebuild I'll end up with a better computer for less. I have to decide tomorrow when they give me an estimate with final specs and compare that to what's ready to go. My local options are limited.

But what really has me stressed is not having accessed my data files yet. First tech charged me for "copying" nothing into an empty file on my external drive; that night we tried putting the drive from the damaged computer into my son's desktop and we could see the folders but it wouldn't give us permission to open anything. The second tech is just setting up shop and didn't have the SATT cord necessary to connect the drive to a USB port. So I have a cord being delivered tomorrow and am hoping the baby or the VISTA will be able to let me into those files.

It could be worse. I do have two external hard drives that I normally copy to whenever I've done a significant amount of work. I rotate them so one is at home and one in a safety deposit box (because I lived in fire country). However, with my work space continually changing, I lost track and hadn't backed up in a few weeks. Fortunately, one client's files have all been uploaded to KDP and Ingram; another KDP paperback's published and I have older versions and the paperback proof copy in which I did final edits with highlighters and pens. Worst case scenario, I rebuild the files for ebooks and hardcover on my own time. The new client emailed his files and I hadn't had a chance to work on them yet, so nothing is lost.

My own records and writing will be the hardest to replace if I don't get into those files tomorrow. Please send positive thoughts on that.

When I woke up at three in the morning stressing, I stayed up and organized things better so there won't be a repeat once I have a working computer again. The lesson is learned: I will back up new work each day - either using those external drives religiously and/or getting over my resistance to using the cloud.

Meanwhile, now I have internet again, I'll deal with the email issue while I wait for that cord. It looks like I'll be working with my make-do tech for at least a week, so instead of driving myself crazy with it, I'll do the minimum and focus on settling my environment instead. I still have several days of painting, setup, and unpacking to have both my living and work space settled. I packed up last July and still have 39 boxes of books. Only twelve are for the office - I sorted them tonight while I looked for my Word disc for the baby computer. It was in box 39.