Unfortunately the only real event of this last week is our external hard drive dying on us. Of course it happened with no warning. And completely out of the blue. All of my photos are on that thing. ALL OF THEM! All of my recipes. Old church talks Neil and I have given over the years. All of our Christmas letters. 80 gigs worth of music, which luckily Neil has backed up on his iPod. Old family photos I spent hours upon hours scanning and editing in photoshop. I am absolutely devastated.
It's a mechanical issue, which means the files are still in there. We just can't access them for whatever reason. Last Monday we took it to a guy from church who owns a computer repair business. He handed it over to another guy who specializes in hard drive issues. Yesterday we were told it wasn't looking good, but we have yet to hear the final verdict. We know of someone else who is planning to look at it this week, assuming the other guy can't figure it out. But if he can't retrieve the files, our only other option is to pay $1400+ to have it sent in somewhere, taken into a dust-free room and basically dissected. Like I have a grand and a half just sitting around to cover that cost! So it can be done, but not for nothin'. Makes me so mad. I know it's just "stuff", but can you really put a price on photos? If you ask me, the answer is no. I am truly hoping and praying for a miracle.
Thank goodness I maintained a website for Chloe the first two years of her life. Even if I can't access those photos for the sake of editing, digital scrapbooking or posting them here on my blog (for whatever reason I'd want to), at least the important ones are on a keepsake cd, which I ordered when her website expired last summer. And then there's this blog, which I'm even more grateful for now than I've ever been. There are lots of great pictures and memories documented here, which would otherwise be gone.
Thank goodness I maintained a website for Chloe the first two years of her life. Even if I can't access those photos for the sake of editing, digital scrapbooking or posting them here on my blog (for whatever reason I'd want to), at least the important ones are on a keepsake cd, which I ordered when her website expired last summer. And then there's this blog, which I'm even more grateful for now than I've ever been. There are lots of great pictures and memories documented here, which would otherwise be gone.
If the hard drive can't be fixed we are planning to just hang onto it in hopes that the cost for such a process eventually goes down. Can't hurt. Until then, I'm cherishing the photos I do have and am taking each day. And you'd better believe I'm going to start a back up system of periodically saving my photos onto discs so this nightmare doesn't re-live itself.
On the upside, I have lots to be grateful for. And believe it or not, this experience has been eye opening in more ways than I even wish to go into.
Lately Chloe has been saying just out of the blue, "Mommy, I just love you so much!" Such simple words have never been so meaningful to me. She has no idea how she melts my heart.
And my sweet, sweet Ryan. Gosh, I love this boy. Snot, drool and all!
And my sweet, sweet Ryan. Gosh, I love this boy. Snot, drool and all!
We'll see what happens with the hard drive. Until we have good news though, you probably won't be seeing too many 'Flashback Friday' posts.
16 comments:
It'll all be OK, honey...somehow...just like Dad said. Everything happens for a reason, and as you acknowledged, you've already gained something from this. I'm sure there are answers. Just as Pres. Hinckley always said, "...it'll be OK."
You do such a wonderful job here - spread so much joy. Just look at those two dear little faces and how sweet are Chloe's words that melt your heart. They melt my heart too. The pictures are amazing! LOVE her haircut!
Love you! All of you!
Hang in there, dearest sweetheart.
Love love love,
Mama/Gma Jill
Valeri, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure the photos are the toughest thing to lose, but hopefully you'll get them back (and at a cheaper price).
You mentioned putting photos, etc on discs, and that's what I've done in the past too, but I wanted to let you know of something that I got as a gift from my MIL that backs up photos, music, documents, etc. It's called Clickfree, a portable hard drive, and there are several on QVC. Mine happens to be 250 GB but they have larger. It doesn't require any software or installation and trust me, it was easy to use. Check it out on QVC if you're interested.
That just stinks! I am so sorry and hope you can retrieve your info. Best wishes!
That sucks big time! I'm sorry! Hopefully it will all work out for you though. I love the pictures. Ryan is getting so big, what a handsome little guy. Chloe is such a doll. Lots of love!
What a bummer!!! That's why we have external hard drives, right -- so the computer WON'T get overloaded and crash. Aaaah! I think I'll be taking on a new project of backing up all my pics. So thanks for the warning & good luck!
I'm sorry to hear about your computer woes. I remember last fall when blue sparks and smoke shot out the back of our old computer. Hopefully things will work out quickly and inexpensively as possible.
Oh, that makes me feel sick to my stomach. My pictures are the most valuable thing I own, I can't imagine losing them!! I would definitely pay the money someday to get them back. So sorry this happened!
Britt
NO! That is awful - I'm so sorry! I would also be devastated if I lost everything on my hard drive; especially my pictures. I hope you get everything back!
I'm so sorry. Reminds me of when our laptop got stolen & like 2 days before I thought "I should put all this on the flash drive" and I didn't. Now it is lost forever, pics, blessing etc. No amount of money can ever get them back. I wish you the best of luck. I shed many tears over those pictures & years of videos that are gone forever. My heart goes out to you.
Valeri,
So sorry you guys lost your hard drive! David and I had the same thing happen on one of our old desktops. And guess what? It's still sitting in a tote in the garage. :) There are some cheaper hard drive restoration options out there. We just haven't done them yet.
Also, I have to agree with the other person who commented. The easiest way to back up is with the portable hard drive. Discs always take so much time!! Good luck!
Something to keep in mind for future options, because storage will always be an issue, is to look into Solid State Drives...they're coming down a lot in cost and you remove the chance of having a head crash which is what takes out most hard disk drives. The other option is to use Amazon's backup solution. Its fairly priced, and they back-up and house in 3 different geographic locations, virtually insuring that even in natural disasters your data is safe. Just some food for thought for you guys. Sorry to hear about the drive, unfortunately every technology we have out there at this time still isn't "forever proof". Just part of the world we live in I guess.
Oh, that is so TERRIBLE! I would DIE! In fact, I was just thinking about that the other day, what would happen if my external hard drives died? Everything would be gone! Luckily I have past years' items on disks, but not 2009... Scary! I so hope you're able to retrieve all of the data off it.
Oh, Valeri! I am Sooooo sorry! I would be completely devestated like you said you are. You've taken more pictures than anyone I've ever seen. I'm sure that there will be a way soon for you guys to get those back!
My heart just aches for you. I know EXACTLY what that is like. After two computer crashes and losing priceless photos and documents, I know how devastating that can be. I'm so sorry! I hope you're able to recover all of it!
this is seriously heartbreaking! i just feel awful for you! i can't imagine that happening to us...nightmare for sure!
good news: i love your new background. beautiful.
I was just sick to read that that happened to you! I do know what it feels like since Wendy lost a lot of her pictures too through computer crashes, and we (especially Jenny) lost so many priceless pictures and negatives during our flood too! A few years ago we lost stuff off our hard drive too, but Vee was able to retrieve it (after much hard work and time, which I can never thank him enough for). So we were lucky that time and it has taught me to never take for granted that we will always have everything because terrible things like that can and do happen, unfortunately. I have a backup system through my anti-virus protection now, thankfully (although I have never tried to retrieve anything, so hopefully it really is all there!), but I also put my precious pictures and other documents onto CD's too just in case. Which reminds me, I need to do that again because I am behind on it. I am soooo sorry for your loss--but maybe someday you can get everything back again. I agree that you can't really put a price on photos and videos! Good luck with it! Love you!
Post a Comment