My Hard Drive - She is Fucked

Yes. Sad isn't it?

Would it be less sad if it was just a LITTLE hard drive. No ma'am. This here was a Big 'Ole 160Gig EXTERNAL (this part will come in handy later when I tell of how I THREW it out the second story window) Hard Drive. An external one - so if my computer craps out, I can still work on my laptop or somewhere else. Good plan.

Full of meaningless crap you ask? Oh NOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Pictures of the kids? Nope.

Work stuff? 6 months worth of endless hours that you can never get back? That WHEN (not IF - cuz it ALWAYS happens) the client calls and would like to revisit job such-and such - I will be up ALL night trying to recreate FREE OF CHARGE?

Yes, THAT hard drive.

You couldn't be THAT dumb to not have it backed up, you say. Wrong again. Although, in my defense - I TRIED fruitlessly ALL DAY to burn DVDS of crap off there - only to be shut down at every turn.

Want to know what the SADDEST part is?

I've seen this movie before my friends.

I have LIVED this particular nightmare once before. I had MUCH, MUCH more on the drive back then. And I after I realized I could not resurrect it - I called a professional to give me a drink and then I called The Tech Dork. The Tech Dork TRIED to concentrate over my endless wailing (whaling??) to help me - but alas, he could not. I called for the last hope. A company out in CA who swore they could get back ANYTHING. I sobbed on the phone and through broken sentences, due to sniffles, asked the guy how much this particular fuck-up of mine might be.

"You said it was a 120g Hard Drive?" (I had a SMALLER one back then)

*sniff, snort* "Ye - es"

"Well, if we recover it all - which I think we can - $4000.00"

"Are you fucking serious?!"

"You don't want your stuff back?"

"OK. Thanks. Do I at least get french kissed first?!"

"What?."

"Never mind."

But, it turns out the conversation (and getting my hopes up) were for nothing because they called the next day and told me they could not recover a single file. Not one. Not even the pic of my kids. No charge.

That week, was probably to lowest point in my life. I cried ALL DAY. I was SO depressed. I vowed to NEVER let such things happen again. I will BACKUP regularly. And I did. For a while.

*sigh*

Here we are...AGAIN.

I went to OfficeMax to buy a new drive. I hoped that Good Karma put out by yours truly, might prove to help the situation. I held doors, I let someone go ahead in line, I smiled (fake, but WHATEVER). I MAY OR MAY NOT have been overheard on my cellphone saying that I was BEYOND the point of snapping. That would account for everyone taking 2 steps back and the cashier with the mace in her hand. WHATEVER.

I raced home with my new drive all portable and what-not and plugged it in. There it was all shiny on my desktop. But the info on the old drive - NOT. COMING. OFF. Whore. My heart sank. Off to bed - crying - hopeless. Nothing but a cigarette would help. Seriously. I didn't have any, since I quit like, forever ago. But I WOULD have. Down to the filter.

Didn't sleep. Tossed and turned. Up VERY early. With a glimmer of hope, I booted up the Old Girl and ya know what????

She sang. She purred. I promised to touch her like he liked and she gave up all the FILES. All of MY FILES. I copied them over and burned them to DVD. I even smiled (real this time).

I got everything off the drive and reformatted it and made it like brand new. Only its not. Its tainted. But do I heed the little voice in my head screaming "Don't trust it. It left you once, it will do it again." No. I do not. I copy a bunch of shit back onto it. But something makes me call my very mild-mannered work friend (read here he is very proper - no swearing kinda guy). I give him the abbreviated version of this story (I bet you WISH you were him) and I wait for his response to my inquiry of whether he would use the drive or not.

"Are you fucking KIDDING me?!" Mild Mannered Co-worker asks.

Stunned. I have never heard him talk like that. I begin to hysterically laugh.

"So, what your saying is - I'm an asshole?!" I ask.

"Get rid of the drive. Buy a new one. They are a couple hundred bucks." GOSH. (I can kinda hear him saying it like Napolean Dynamite)

So I threw it out the window, barely grazing the lawn guy. Sorry Lawn Guy - It's not you, its me.

I swear I'll learn my lesson THIS time.