Burnt Toast

That is the best description I can come up with for the state of my laptop. Burnt Toast. It crashed and burned. I spent the morning trying to find a laptop repair shop. My third try I stumble upon the sweetest geeky guy who looked at me and said, "Let's see what we can do..." He opened her up and then took out the hard drive. Invited me back to his crazy work area and tried like heck to get my hard disk to show up on his hobbled together work bench CPU. Well it could see it but that was it. Data locked up tight...

I had my MBA paper locked up in the mess and I really did not want to rewrite it. Everything else is safe - either backed up or on the web somewhere I can retrieve it. But the drafted paper which was due today - NOT SO MUCH.

I had 2 goals I told him.

1. Get that paper....

2. Ascertain if the laptop was fixable or not. If not or if it was going to cost hundreds of dollars - I was not going there. I only paid $500 for thing and it is 2 years old. I get the math and I have been told that once bits start to break - well it is like a snow ball rolling down hill.

After a number of tries, he looked at me and said, "Well.... um I think we have a problem with the hard disk."

I think he thought I was going to cry.

I said - "Is it a sure bet that I should just go home and write again."

He nodded. Looking hopeful that I would not cry.

He said he was dying to try some new software and maybe he could get back some of the info on my hard drive. He would charge me only $50 if he could. He was unclear whether or not my problem is physical - ie broken ball bearings or if it is mucked up files. I have a whisper of what he called the clicks of death.

I agreed and since the lap top is basically toast - he is going to check it out - but it likely is a shorted circuit and the motherboard (read expensive....) I told him he could have it for parts and I want the hard disk either way.

We shook hands and I came home and rewrote the paper. Thank goodness I had a robust outline and I can type fast.

Thankfully all my back ups are just fine and I had backed the entire thing up recently. Just not the paper....grrr......

So I guess I will go shopping for a new laptop and I am going to invest in another back up hard drive. I work too hard to lose my work product to the hard disk trolls!