give the geek a chance.

I have a confession. I work with computers for a living and they pay me a hefty salary to do so.

The funny thing is: I know nothing about them.

I know a good deal about writing software and building webpages and architecting solutions to be reusable, maintainable and generally totally awesome {SNORE}.

I don't know shit about hardware.

So when we moved and I hooked up my computer and realized that it wasn't the USB hub or the computer or the power supply that was making it so that my external hard-drive wasn't recognized by the computer, I wept. I thought about Cameron's first months of life and how I had nothing to show for them. There were exactly TWO MONTHS that I didn't have backed up and they just happened to be the first two months of my baby's life.

I kicked myself about three thousand times in the head because I KNOW BETTER. I WORK WITH COMPUTERS FOR A LIVING. I KNOW THEY FAIL.

It sat on my desk for a few weeks mocking me. I was totally scared to have someone look at it and tell me that it was going to cost thousands of dollars because I WAS WILLING TO PAY FOR IT. That's the crazy part. He's my son and I DIDN'T HAVE A PICTURE OF HIS FIRST WEEK OF LIFE.

In an act of desparation I took it to the Geek Squad. And when I met my nine foot tall geek, I was smitten. He offered to bust it open to check the USB adapter because sometimes they go bad. He told me how this NEVER happens and that most of the time people end up paying to have their data recovered in an air tight room. Then he told me about the average cost being in the seven hundred dollar range. I gazed into his eyes and held tight to my faith in my geek. Then he went over and started HAMMERING on my hard-drive, got it open and plugged it in. AND HE COULD SEE THE FILES.

Then I kissed his feet (I couldn't reach his lips he was NINE FEET TALL, remember?) and promised to have his babies.

After that I went home and backed up every fricking file under the sun TWICE on my brand, new, sparkling DUAL 1 TERABYTE drives. Overly cautious? Perhaps, but I learned a lesson. A very valuable lesson.

Give The Geek A Chance.

Comments

[anne]

This is a good lesson to keep reiterating!! We really really need to be better about backing up our stuff- not only onto the external hard drive- but somewhere ELSE because what if some freak breaks into my house and steals both computers and the external hard drive?? Totally bound to happen!! Thanks for the lesson- I'm putting this on my to-do list.

[The Mommy]

Point taken. Do you ever actually get prints? (And that's really not trying to be sarcastic, I was seriously wondering...)

I know less than you about computers. When I worked, I had to learn new software constantly in order to be able to run the instruments, but it was ugly. The IT guys would see my extension on their ID and fight over who had to answer it. Yes, it was that bad. I had to call from a different phone just so they would answer! And the call always ended with, "We've never seen that happen before..." {SIGH} I'm pretty sure my husband backs up our stuff regularly but what the hell do I know? This is why I get actual, physical prints at least once a month.

[jenny]

where did you get your terabyte drives and how much did they cost you? my western digital 250gb is almost full and i need to get more backup STAT.

oh, and mozy is pissing me off and i still have to call customer service about the whole online backing up deal. because that's my second form of backup (or it IS GOING to be). :)