27 January 2010
High school graduation: age 18: year: 2004: graduation present: a brand new laptop.
This day will always be one of the most memorable days of my life, not because I achieved my first real rite of passage by graduating high school, but because this would mark the next four years of Data-Loss misery.
During my time in college I got repeatedly “punked” as my hard drive crashed three times, I had to get a new motherboard (which to date I still think is something that has to do with aliens), had to get a new power cord, and my computer screen completely zonked out. Each time resulted in serious data loss from demolished hard drives and computer technicalities.
I have lost everything from pictures from my time in Italy, to my senior thesis, to thousands of dollars in iTunes music, to job applications, all because of this con-artist of a laptop that kept crashing and so too my entire virtual life. These experiences jaded my relationship with computers. After the fourth hard drive crash over a year ago I tried for months to get somebody that could get the information off my computer without success. I know in this digital age computers are still essential to everyday life, and yes I do have a work laptop, but still have not nor do I plan to buy my own personal computer until I can find a program that ensures I will not lose more time, money, and memories due to unnecessary data-loss.
I wish somebody or something would have been able to “save my bacon,” because time after time all my data got was a one way ticket to the butcher shop.
08 January 2010
Last year I wrote a really, REALLY excellent paper for my senior English class. I\’m talking a once-in-a-lifetime A+ paper. However, after buying a new laptop for college, the flash drive I bought to transfer my files snapped in two…with all my info on it…AFTER I had sold my old laptop. All my pics and old files, including my golden English paper, GONE.
But it gets worse: This semester for my freshman English class, I needed to write a 30 page paper on a topic of my choosing for extra credit. All I would have had to do was add a few more pages on my already-written paper, and I would have probably gotten an A. As it was, I had to re-write the paper from memory, and I\’m anticipating a B+ at best. If only I had known that Norton could save my bacon…
