Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Technical Difficulties.

Well that is the phrase of the day. Apparently sometime between the hours of 10pm last night and 8am this morning, my laptop did Microsoft updates, even though I definitely never told it to. So I woke up this morning to a strange black and gray screen telling me that there was a problem when the computer restarted after updating. The prompt told me that I needed to use the Recovery disc or follow one of the other 4 restart options. Seeing as Sony does not supply system recovery discs at the time of purchase, the first option was not possible. So I followed the next 4 only to have them all lead me back to the black and gray screen. I called my mom at work and told her the problem. She came home at lunch time, and we took the computer to Best Buy (where we purchased it). Unfortunately the Microsoft software (which turns out to be the problem) is not covered under any of the warranties. So what to do? I had to leave my laptop (also known as the Phoenix, it's red I like color themed names) there to have the hard drive backed up and then come home to call Sony about the recovery disc. But first they make me fill out a list of what I want them to say, and I can't just say "everything". I just told them that I wanted all of my documents, my music, and my pictures and the pictures were the most important thing. They wanted specific file names and places, which of course I had trouble remembering. Oh and all of this was 100 dollars, and if I want them to do the recovery it will be another 130. We promptly left the store, and I cried on the way home. It felt like my house had burned down (extreme I know), but I really feel like they aren't going to save everything. I have a lot of photos that are only on that computer, and they are important me.

(I guess not important enough for me to figure out to back them all up on my own!!!)

I'm so mad at myself for not thinking about something like this before it happened, and not finding a way to back up my files.

So anyway we came home ordered the Recovery disc from some guy at Sony (another 30 bucks), and now we have to wait a week for it to come. I hate how out of control this makes me feel. I also don't want to deal with the fact that I will now have limited access to the internet, as the desktop computer has 3 users now. So I won't be around often to comment or read. And my school work is also going to suffer because it's web-based. The placement of our desktop computer is not necessarily set up as a school work space. I rely on technology so much with diabetes and just in general. It's hard to believe it has failed me this easily. Of course now I'm worried about my pump going crazy.

Anyway here I am typing on our almost 6 year old slow desktop computer, thinking "I should have gotten a Mac."

Until next time.

7 comments:

meanderings said...

We lost a hard drive once, w/ no backup. It was less than a month old and I hadn't done a back up. We had transferred all sorts of stuff to the new computer and it was all gone...
Since our first digital camera, purchased a while ago, I now back up religiously. Coolest new toy is a Maxtor. Does a back up automatically every week.
It's frustrating Jillian, but you, too will survive - honest!

Unknown said...

Wish I would have read this before you ordered the recovery disks. You can download them online and either make them bootable floppies or a bootable cd. Also considering networking your laptop in with the home computer and backing things up that way or get an external hard drive and you can set up an automatic back up from your laptop to the hard drive. I rely heavily on my laptop as well, I take online classes, record blood sugars, everything on mine so I have a system of back ups set up.

Cara said...

Bless your heart. That sucks. I hope it all turns out well for you in the end. And now I'm going to back up all of my documents, files, pictures, and music...

Chris said...

Sorry to hear about your computer woes. I have been a computer tech since computers have been in homes and I have learned that backup is essential. Not just one backjup but multiple. I have 3 computers that are up and running 24/7 and each have DVD burners. I regularly backup on DVDs and copy info to multiple computers. I also put some of my stuff on flash drives for backup and portability. I hate Microsoft. Their updates are such a pain. I suggest turning off automatic updates and just occasionally checking microsoft updates page and doing it manually.

Good luck with the computer.

Anonymous said...

:( I hate hate hate not having my computer working. I hope yours is fixed right away! How sad to have it in the computer infirmary.

When you know, let me know what to stick on the ID and I'll have it out your way. Not as good as a computer, but mail is a little fun :)

Bernard said...

Sorry to hear about this. We do some limited backups, but not enough.

I know I need to buy a networked disk and setup backups to that for all our machines. One of these days...

I hope it all comes back properly.

Donna said...

Hi Jillian,
Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble. Computer problems stink!

I hope you get everything resolved soon.