Ha! So much for rest and relaxation while reading a book yesterday. Granted, the day started off well as I set myself to finishing Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros, but then after a while, when I had about one hundred pages left in the book to read, I woke up my computer to check email only to find a very peculiar error message on the screen.
It wasn't one I had seen before and it concerned me, because I couldn't exit out of it as the entire screen was locked. So I rebooted the computer, only to have the same error message pop up again...only this time, taking all my files on the desktop with it. The desktop was blank. All my files, including the one marked "dissertation" was gone.
Getting nervous now, I took a picture of the error message with my phone and sent it to my husband who is a computer genius and he replied back. It didn't look good. Looked like the computer was toast...and everything on it.
Can you save anything? I texted. I had copies of all my files saved in multiple places, thumb drives, emailed copies, the like, so it wouldn't be a total loss if everything was gone....except for one thing. I had made a copy of my early work on the dissertation, but the latest writing I had done--the last half of the first chapter was only saved in one place--and that was the desktop...the one that was blank now.
Did you click anything? he texted. Apparently that would make a difference on whether you could retrieve files or not and I thought, uhm, no? I had shut the computer down, but would that make a difference?
Just leave it be, he said, and I'll fix it when I get home. No worries.
I tried to busy myself until he got home to keep my mind off of the computer, but the water company was fixing a leak under the street in front of our house, so the water had been turned off, so I couldn't do laundry, I couldn't do dishes, I couldn't mop or really, do anything. The whole time, I was thinking about how I had just foolishly posted on here about how happy I was to start work on the dissertation and how I had finished what I thought might be my first chapter and now, this...serves me right for being boastful and not checking myself when I needed to. Serves me right.
So after I was done beating myself down, I read and finished Caramelo (which really and truly is a wonderful book--especially the last half when Lala begins to grow up) and it helped me not to focus on all the work I had potentially lost.
When my husband came home, he pulled out a big folder with carefully labeled CDs, picked out the one he needed, and shazaam, the computer files were found, the files transferred, the computer wiped, and everything made new again.
And as simple as that, the dissertation is back up on the desktop just as my husband said...no worries. It's a huge relief for me, so now I can go about writing on it again today....only instead of saving it to my desktop after every page or so and emailing it to myself when the day's work is done, I will be doing this much more often.
I am so thankful to my husband, though. I've said before that he is Superman and he still is...no germs or viruses (in any form) can touch him.
It wasn't one I had seen before and it concerned me, because I couldn't exit out of it as the entire screen was locked. So I rebooted the computer, only to have the same error message pop up again...only this time, taking all my files on the desktop with it. The desktop was blank. All my files, including the one marked "dissertation" was gone.
Getting nervous now, I took a picture of the error message with my phone and sent it to my husband who is a computer genius and he replied back. It didn't look good. Looked like the computer was toast...and everything on it.
Can you save anything? I texted. I had copies of all my files saved in multiple places, thumb drives, emailed copies, the like, so it wouldn't be a total loss if everything was gone....except for one thing. I had made a copy of my early work on the dissertation, but the latest writing I had done--the last half of the first chapter was only saved in one place--and that was the desktop...the one that was blank now.
Did you click anything? he texted. Apparently that would make a difference on whether you could retrieve files or not and I thought, uhm, no? I had shut the computer down, but would that make a difference?
Just leave it be, he said, and I'll fix it when I get home. No worries.
No worries?
I tried to busy myself until he got home to keep my mind off of the computer, but the water company was fixing a leak under the street in front of our house, so the water had been turned off, so I couldn't do laundry, I couldn't do dishes, I couldn't mop or really, do anything. The whole time, I was thinking about how I had just foolishly posted on here about how happy I was to start work on the dissertation and how I had finished what I thought might be my first chapter and now, this...serves me right for being boastful and not checking myself when I needed to. Serves me right.
So after I was done beating myself down, I read and finished Caramelo (which really and truly is a wonderful book--especially the last half when Lala begins to grow up) and it helped me not to focus on all the work I had potentially lost.
When my husband came home, he pulled out a big folder with carefully labeled CDs, picked out the one he needed, and shazaam, the computer files were found, the files transferred, the computer wiped, and everything made new again.
And as simple as that, the dissertation is back up on the desktop just as my husband said...no worries. It's a huge relief for me, so now I can go about writing on it again today....only instead of saving it to my desktop after every page or so and emailing it to myself when the day's work is done, I will be doing this much more often.
I am so thankful to my husband, though. I've said before that he is Superman and he still is...no germs or viruses (in any form) can touch him.
What an awesome Superman-husband. So glad he's on your side, as I've suffered through several of these frights. Happy dissertating and backing up along the way. :)
ReplyDeleteHe is awesome and such a life saver! Thanks for the good wishes! They helped today!
ReplyDeleteI now sync all my files with Sugarsync. It updates my teaching and researching files whenever I make a copy. It saves a copy to the cloud but also syncs them with my other laptop and with my computer at work. It's really made the semester easier for me. Normally at the end of term I spend about 2 hours matching up files and figuring out what the latest versions are.
ReplyDeleteHow cool! I've never heard of Sugarsync, but it sounds amazing!
ReplyDelete