Yes, I've been an absentee blogger for a while, and I actually do have an excuse for it this time - last week, while pounding the keys in frustration, either I or the heat or wear and tear or coincidence caused my hard disk to simply crash and burn.
The hard disk is basically what contains all the data, including the operating system, on a computer. Without a functioning hard disk, I basically had no pc at all.
Luckily, having Ubuntu as dual OS, when Windows refused to boot, I was able to boot into Ubuntu (though I did get a message warning me that 'hard disk failure is imminent'). From Ubuntu, I was able to access the data, and copied the most important stuff - the photos from the past few months - onto an external hard drive. I then nipped out to a pc shop, carrying my little netbook, and asked the possibility of a repair. I was told it would take several weeks and cost about 300 dollars. Considering that a new netbook is only 400 dollars, and knowing full well that my disk was fried, and that the data still on it was not worth that much cash, I declined. But rather than buy a new pc, of course, I just bought a new hard disk and a clip drive that I intended to install another OS on - like Ubuntu.
When it comes to computer repair or diagnosing any issues with a pc, it is really vital to have a second computer handy. Brian and I at one point had about 8 computers between the two of us. I have pared down to just two. And fortunately I did have access to a functioning pc from which I was able to download and install the necessary OS to get me up and running again!
2 comments:
I had the hard drives on my home and office computers die on about the same day in February. The home computer had an external hard drive for back up and I was able to recover my files and transfer them to a new machine. I lost everything on the office computer. Moral: get an external hard drive and do regular backups. Even better: get a flash drive to back up data files and keep that in a separate location.
Hey Steve -
Exactly! I tend to go around thinking , 'well, it won't happen to me...' Right! If it had been my big pc, I would have cried. Luckily, I did buy a disk and do a back up of that one a few months ago...time for another one soon!
I also heard that online backups are a pretty good service to have, too...
Post a Comment