Fingers Crossed

So I finally got to tend to my possibly-dead computer over the weekend.

Amateur diagnosis: Maybe something bad, maybe something good. I don’t know. But I’m going to find out. This is no mere History Eraser Button – it’s my computer.

I’m not a complete idiot when it comes to fixing computers. I have replaced fans, power supplies, installed memory and video cards, etc., and worked on many a printer issue and software problem. But it’s mostly trial and error. And when my computer wouldn’t go beyond the HP startup screen, I knew getting it working again was beyond my ken.

Fortunately, my wife knows a guy through Scouting who does computer diagnostics and repair, so we took the box to him Sunday night, hoping he can fix it for me.

I’m hoping at minimum I can get some data recovered – there are a couple of incomplete novels, a lot of journal entries, pictures, etc., on that computer that I may or may not have backed up somewhere. The journal entries would be the biggest loss, as most of them are scans of paper journals that I no longer have (why I thought it was a good idea to toss the paper once the scans were done is beyond me).

A lot of it can be replaced, but it’s things like comic strips and Simpsons memes that I’ve collected over the years, and the thought of having to start over again brings to mind one of the memes I may have lost:

So, clearly, First World Problem, because with one computer dead that leaves me only with five other computers to choose from in the house.

[Checks onion on belt.] Back in the day when I had that old Royal typewriter, if it was broke, I just didn’t type any more letters.

I wonder what I did with that typewriter? Not that I have room for it in the study, what with the two printers, boxes of monitors and other electronics that sit there idle and useless, waiting for the thrift store under construction nearby to open so I can drop them off. It would be neat, however. . .

And, yes, I should be backing up more frequently. To my credit, I have tried.

I don’t like Dropbox because if I want to use it as backup, the item I’m backing up MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARS from my computer, thus eliminating the basic tenet of a backup, which in my mind is having TWO COPES of the same thing in different places.

I use DVDs and thumb drives as backups, barring from my mind the HORROR stories of such media losing data over time and making your memories IRRETRIEVABLE and replacing it with mocking pictures of clowns and other such stuff.

I have hard copies of some stuff, but then I’m back to the storage problems that made scanning and chucking the paper copies such an attractive idea in the first place.

It’s also possible I have backups of much of my stuff on the kids’ computer in the kitchen, as that used to be my computer and is still reliably churning away, although the computer I have which is broken is a lot younger than the kids’ computer is.