Friday, October 9, 2009

WARNING - Don't do what I did!

Okay, so two days ago while working at 10:00 at night my computer kept locking up on me.  I was so frustrated so I ran a disk utility on it and it told me that I needed to reinstall my operating system.  Okay.  So I went through the boxes I have packed so that we can move and I found the disks to reinstall it.  Not a problem.

So I insert the disk and it warns me that I need to back up all of my data or it will be lost.  It tells me how to stop the installation so that I can do that.  Went through the steps that it told me and then it proceeded to not want to do anything.  At this point it is about 11:00 at night and so I call Apple and they have the audacity to be closed at night.  I can't believe they aren't open all hours of the night so help me when I need it.  Go figure that they need time off.

So I went to bed and called Apple the next day.  They walked me through about three different ways that I could get my computer started to no avail.  They told me that it was a hardware problem and that I needed to call a technician.  AT LEAST I bought the three year Apple care protection to protect me!! 

So I called and found a guy that could come to my house that was authorized by Apple.  I have to use the people they want since it was under warranty.  Anyways he couldn't get anything more than I had done to it and told me that it was probably my hard drive that went bad.  So he took it back to his office and ran diagnostics on it and said that he could see all of my data and so he would install a new hard drive and then just migrate my data from one to the other.  AWESOME!  This was starting to look like it was going to turn out okay.

In the meantime I had to use my hubby's laptop while he went out of town so that I could finish the work I had in order to meet my deadline.  He was not happy about leaving it at home.  I thank him soooo much for that.  Now her just gives me a hard time because he thinks that I really bought him a computer just so I would use it.  Not!!  I actually love my computer and prefer to use it rather than his laptop.

So toda my computer comes back home all new and the technician proceeds to tell me that he couldn't get any of my data!  I swear I thought he was joking!!  What - - 4000 pictures, GONE!!!  I can deal with the music I don't have and work but the pictures I can't ever get back!  Four years down the drain!!  I am sick!!  He said that he could see all of my files but when he actually went in to recover my data that there was in the files!  ARGH!!!!!

SO....I got my computer back but now I have to spend a lot of time getting it back to where I want it installing all of the programs I need, etc.  I lost all of my email account addresses, the 100's of websites I had on my favorites menu, just to name a few.

So what did I learn this week that you can learn from me..

GET AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!!  No matter how much it costs it can save you a lot later on.  Don't learn the hard way like I did.

Don't have your home office in the same room as your dryer!  The whole reason that this happened in the first place was because of my dryer.  You see, my computer desk is always dusty and I never thought anything of it.  Well seems that the dryer creates dust in the air even though it is vented well and so where can that duct go other than in the back of the computer wherever there is an opening.  Every where there was a vent fan was an entry point for dust, and lots of it!  The technician said that he literally had to vacuum out my computer because there was so much dust in there.  Go figure!  Who would have guessed that having it in the same room would have created a problem like that.

Last but not least, if you do chose to not follow my advice, make sure you buy a warranty of some kind if you are getting a new computer.  That was my only saving grace during this whole ordeal.  $100 a year and a half ago when I got the computer is paying off right now.  I didn't have to pa a dime for the service or the part.  That's good considering I am going to be paying for a long time coming because I don't have my cherished pictures.

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