"experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." -randy pausch

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

back up!

my fingers are burning to write tonight!!!
all morning i was on the phone with the lovely sarah from india (hp tech support) trying to fix my brand new computer. apparently it has a "bad mother board," whatever that means. basically it went like this:
sarah: you have a mother board that is bad.
emily: fabulous, what does that mean?
sarah: no problem, we will just send you a FedEx box to send it back to be fixed.
emily: does that mean you will backup my files?
sarah: we will have to wipe your files completely and do not support a backup (privacy)
emily: (while starting to tear up) can't i give someone my permission to backup my pictures before you erase my hard drive? (starting to panic inside, may hyperventilate)
sarah: no mam, it's against our privacy policy (she really was very lovely and understanding while saying all of this)
emily: (very calmly) i see, but i just had this beautiful little baby and EVERY picture i have of him is on this hard drive (trying not to let sarah know i really am crying now, while sean hands me a box of tissues).
sarah: i am so sorry. i understand, but we are unable to back up anything. you might try a local company before sending it back to us.
emily: (having worked on "the phones" for a company & understanding it's not sarah's fault i say...) okay, are you sure there's nothing we can do?
sarah: no mam, how would you like to proceed?
emily: (silence: because i am still trying to not let sarah know i am crying now)
sarah: are you there mam?
emily: yes (choked out one word, but i think she caught on that i was crying)
sarah: how would you like to proceed?
emily: i guess...(pause, again, still trying to not give myself away)...we'll go with sending it back to be fixed (pause, no way she doesn't know i'm crying now).
sarah: one moment while i put you on hold to get things in order.
emily: (looking at sean with big tears and a runny nose i say...) i should have backed up my files.
now here comes the happy ending...
...i plug the four cards back into the mother board that sarah from hp told me to take out and restart my computer one last time (just for kicks)....
and...
it starts.
hallelujah!!!!
so all day, from
10am-9:30pm
we've been backing up our computer.
it feels better than spring cleaning!
oh, and with all of our extra time away from our computer we made this amazingly beautiful & ultra sugary gingerbread house.
...and cut brennan's hair, which is still laying on the carpet ...
(but i figure it's sort of blonde and so is the carpet, so we'll just rub it in until tomorrow...and maybe i'll vacuum then.)

8 comments:

Lauren said...

I am so glad you were able to get it started! That would be devastating!!! I cried when someone stole my laptop out of the trunk of my car-- and I had duplicates of almost everything that was important (but also had not had the foresight to backup my files either so thank you for reminding me to do that soon!)-- Glad things worked out for you!

Vee said...

Ah! Things like that make me nervous!!! I really need to back up all the pics on my computer!

Susan Anderson said...

Boy, that was too close for comfort! I'm glad that you are now fully backed-up.

Yesterday I had a software program called Time Machine put on my computer that automatically does a back-up every 24 hours. This is good for me, because I am NOT good about remembering to back things up myself.

So don't be like me...Keep backing things up on a regular basis. =)

Snarky Belle said...

I think I was on the verge of a massive panic attack as I read that. I am so relieved for you!
I love happy endings,

Thanks so much for your comment on my blog. It made me laugh out loud!! When I taught 5th grade, I remember feeling this way somewhat...but I gotta tell you, the preschool teacher gets no respect. Oops, sorry, I'll stop now. Thanks again, I appreciated what you wrote!

Gilbert Family said...

PHEW!!! so glad that it worked out! an answer to prayers im sure! you can also back them up to shutterfly.com or snapfish.com or costco.com but it does take a while.

Brooke said...

we ordere a second external hard drive the other day... it is such a crazy thought that all our stuff could disappear! happy it all worked out for you!

Nikki said...

This is my solution: I put alllll of my pictures online. Either upload them to Facebook, Photobucket, etc. and then I try to email myself every document that is important to me (because it'll all save online!). Try that!

stacy said...

Oh that scares me! I'm glad it is working out! We're looking at buying a new computer for me (laptop) but that really scares me since we had bad experience when we bought one a year ago and it didn't work when we got it home and they weren't too friendly with taking responsibility and making it right. anyway, back up those files and we're wishing for better luck this time around...how are you? I'm sick with a head cold! I was hoping I'd make it through healthy but everyone around me has been sick so it was inevitable I think. We had a great time in Mexico!! it was my best trip ever except I couldn't be as active as I wanted. I read the entire twilight book that week! It was good!