#1 Rule of Computer Use: Backup your Data

This past Tuesday my computer randomly shutdown and would not start back up. I went through several repair your computer screens but nothing worked. I called Dell for their help. Of course, I am out of my warranty period, so I have to pay $60 for their expert advice. They take me through a diagnostic test and tell me that I will need to reinstall my operating system and all of my personal files on the computer are gone. Great, thanks for your help. Ah! Talk about feeling like you've been punched in the stomach. I sobbed like a blubbering idiot. I was devastated. Guess what's on my computer? The only videos from the day Reed was born and other memories from the first year of his life. Most of the pictures are saved on picasaweb, thank goodness, but most of the videos have never been uploaded. I was so angry and upset. Why, oh why hadn't we backed up our files before? Because most people don't backup their computers, right?!?! Right. We never have.

Thankfully I found a guy would was able to recover all of our files. He said that the solution Dell provided to me is exactly why he got into the computer repair business, there are other options to losing all your data. It's all still there, thankfully! So, we got the computer back on Thursday evening and it seemed to be working fine, except for the fact that the speakers didn't work. I picked up a hard drive on Friday to backup the data on the computer. We went to bed last night with the computer backing up 15,000 files to the external hard drive. I came down this morning to discover the dreaded screen on my computer that I saw the night that it crashed. Ugh! Thankfully the backup process had completed prior to the computer crapping out again. I hate computers but I am thankful for the external hard drive. I am considering taking my Dell out back and torching it. It deserves it from causing so much pain and suffering. We will forever backup the data on our computer from now on, because I never want a replay of this week and I recommend that all of you do the same. Because, you could lose things that could make you a blubbering idiot as well.