Monday, January 16, 2012

Gratitude Monday--Meeting the Challenge

There's always something to be grateful for, even when it doesn't seem so on the surface.
Last Monday afternoon the hard drive went on the computer. Nothing could be saved.
Much was lost as I had gotten sloppy with back ups over the years. The emails are gone, my recipe file, some general work.
And many, many pictures.
But I'd copied all our big trip photos, South America, Cuba, Egypt to either a flash drive or disk. In some cases, both. They're okay.  Various other photos including my visit to my home hamlet, Fort Assiniboine, and our visit to Kootenay Lake B.C. were on Facebook.  Those I copied back one image at a time to my computer and backed up. We still had some photos on our memory cards, too, so we've got those back and backed up.
My manuscripts were on diskettes with one exception. I've only got half of one of them. But, I also have all my manuscripts in hard copy. I can re-type the missing portion. It needed rewriting anyway. This is my excuse to start from scratch and not be tempted, out of sheer laziness, to think a passage is good when it could be better.
We've got a bigger, faster, and ultimately cleaner hard drive. My zeal to back up work is renewed. I will probably get an external hard drive for storage fairly soon.
I am grateful I'd backed up what I did. It appears I have most photos up to summer of 2008. I am happy my manuscripts are in hard copy and that the missing portion can be easily rebuilt. All it will take is time and a bracing cup of tea now and again. Time I have.
This is an annoyance of the first water, but that's all it is, an annoyance, and for that I am grateful.


No point being a bear about it.

16 comments:

Miz said...

Oh Leah.
You have the best perspective.
I had a harddrive crash about a decade ago and am still lamenting the lost tween ms...

Leah J. Utas said...

Miz, I understand and I am sorry. It is still awful, but so many of my pics that were on the blog are safe because of the blog. I hate that the emails are gone. They tell the tale of submissions. It really could be so much worse.

the Bag Lady said...

This is a wake-up call for me. Not that I have anything of major significance, but I really should back up some of the photos and documents....
Glad you were able to salvage almost everything!

Leah J. Utas said...

Yes, Bag Lady. Backing stuff up is good.

thequiltingdoberman said...

Wow! I am grateful to you for the reminder to back stuff up again!

Leah J. Utas said...

thequiltingdoberman, yes. Back up is good.

Crabby McSlacker said...

Love your philosophical attitude! Computer stuff drives me crazy, but strangely enough tantrums rarely help bring back lost items.

Thanks for the reminder to back up!

messymimi said...

Excellent attitude about it, the not crying over spilled milk, just cleaning up.

My favorite backup method is to email myself stuff and make Yahoo store it for me. That's a lazy Luddite method, i guess, but it works.

Leah J. Utas said...

Thanks, Crabby. Tantrums have their place, but you're right, they don't bring anything back.

Messymimi, I try to find the good in the awful. It would be easy to spiral down to a very bad place over this.
I like your method of back up. Whatever works.

Laurita said...

You've made the best of a frustrating situation. I've become very, very good at back-ups. In our line of work we see a lot of lost data (although the lucky ones can have most of it recovered).

Good luck on the re-write.

Leah J. Utas said...

Thanks, Laurita. I do mourn the loss of some of the photos. The rewrite had better be better.

Reb said...

A good attitude is a must in these cases and I am glad to see you have that nailed down. I have been know to back up like messymimi, but usually only until I can go and get some flash drives.

Leah J. Utas said...

Reb, any other outlook and I'd be a quivering mass of anger and denial.

Flash drives are my fave back up.

Hilary said...

Ugh.. I'm sure that most of us have been there at one time or another. I'm sorry you've lost photos and important email but your attitude sure is top-notch. I know others have already said that but it bears repeating.

Cheryl Kohan said...

I just bought an external hard drive...you've just validated the importance...thanks.

Boy, it's hard to be positive when something that massive occurs and I have to hand it to you...your attitude is the best.

Leah J. Utas said...

Hilary, good one.

CherylK,I'll be getting one myself soon.