My life hangs on a (digital) thread
Yes, I am a slave to my computer. I only found this out last night.
Sure, a few weeks ago I backed up all my documents. And, yes, I was scheduled to do that again this weekend. Not soon enough.
This is the last weekend of the last week of classes at WTS. I have been diligently writing my (long) hermeneutics paper. I finished my Doctrine of God reading digest (hundreds of pages of Turretin, Bavinck, and Calvin summarized to exactly fit in 10 pages). I have hundreds of pages of digital notes for my classes that are to be studied for exams.
Then it happened. An exponential slowing down of my machine. I started to think it was some corrupt file or application. Word seemed the likely candidate. Then I got an error message that one of my fonts was corrupt. I’d been working hard on my papers all day. So, I figured, “I better reboot this baby, and back everything up NOW!” One step too late. It never rebooted.
Thank goodness for AppleCare (the extended support you can buy). I was on the phone with them doing all kinds of strange keyboard combinations (some which defy dexterity). Things were hopeful. The tech could speak English and was really nice. We chatted as we waited for various diagnostics to attempt to resurrect the disk. Then, an error. I read it to him and I knew it was bad. His voice sank, “Oh, that’s really bad.” Great.
They think it is physical damage to the hard disk. I have to take the computer to the ER (the local Apple store). Best case scenario: they can somehow get my files off the disk, and replace the parts while I wait. More probable (but still hopeful scenario): We get some of the files off the disk, and I am without a computer for a week. Frantic scenario: Files are lost to retrieval, no computer for a week or two.
If I do not come home today with the documents that I need for this week I will have to beg my professors for an extension or Incomplete. There just is no way I can duplicate what I have already written while I am taking an Old Testament reading exam, a final Hebrew vocab exam, and finishing up all the other work for this final week prior to finals. I don’t even want to think about it. I’m still trying to hang on to a glimmer of hope that some digital shadow will be retrievable. I just cannot bring myself to think about redoing all that work (and that presupposes that I can even remember all the ideas and thoughts I had worked so hard to articulate!) I must still hope. Hey, if the guy on NUMB3RS can retrieve data from a doubly scrubbed disk, why can’t I get my papers off my disk?
Never mind the fact that dealing with all this computer problem stuff is taking time away from studying and writing! And that no matter what happens I’m going to have to reload all my applications, try to recall all my passwords for email, access to UVa servers, wifi, and the list goes on and on. I do not have time to reinstall all this stuff and reconfigure new installs. If I am able to borrow/rent a computer for the remainder of exams I’ll just load the bare necessities to get my papers done.
In a few short hours I’ll know better the status. I’ll keep you posted. So if I look frazzled, that’s why.
May 1st, 2005 at 11:52 am
Yes, hope. Faith, hope, and love abide.
I’m praying for your situation, Karyn.
May 1st, 2005 at 5:33 pm
Well, the news is not good. After many hours with the Apple Genius guys, the conclusion is that the hard disk is unrecoverable. We did try to retrieve some files…but to no avail. I was able to get a computer to use for this week, but I have no idea what I will do about the papers that I had already finished which are due this week. They cannot be redone in the amount of time I have before they are due. I am kind of stunned and numb.
Fortunately, I have a back up of files from 2 weeks ago. But I did not back up my user profile, pictures (good grief, how could I have missed that?), email (this was a huge loss), address book (physical and email), and various passwords. In addition, I have to reconfigure every program that I reload. It will take me hours to get up to the point where I can start working on the papers again. This is a difficult time for me to deal with this, as I am studying for an exam on Monday/Tuesday and a Hebrew vocab exam on Wed. I think I may still have a good shot at redoing the hermeneutics paper….but I have to see what resources I can find again.
I feel pretty drained from the stress of this weekend and hope I can refocus on the tasks at hand.
May 1st, 2005 at 6:28 pm
Wonder of wonders…miracle of miracles…
Somehow (I’m sure in God’s providence), as I was making one last desperate search through the small amount of files we retrieved from the damaged hard disk I saw something that caught my eye… the name of a file that was the paper due on Tuesday this week. Now, some of the files we retrieved were corrupt. So, I held my breath. I had to load the program first… and then I opened the file. Aside from font issues, the text is all there. I am ecstatic. This means I won’t have to redo that paper. I was also able to recover a large part of the paper I am still working on. This is wonderful news. The amazing thing is that there were thousands and thousands (OK, over 10,000 to be exact) of files that were in the “My Documents” folder that we were trying to copy…and the disk hung during that copy and was never able to be found again. Only a few files were recovered, and in those few files, the two that I desperately needed for this week were able to be opened and were not corrupted beyond repair.
May 1st, 2005 at 6:30 pm
Yes! I am so thankful for that, as I know the both of you are.
As for email … if you want to set something up and keep mail on the RMFO server [and IMAP it], please let me know. I can do that for you.
May 1st, 2005 at 6:33 pm
[...] drive suddenly crashed and could not be remounted You can read all the details on her blog here. Although she backs up diligently, she had completed one pa [...]
May 1st, 2005 at 9:00 pm
Hey Karyn - sorry to hear about your computer but rejoicing that your papers were not completely lost. If you still would like to try and recover the rest of you files, my Dad does data recovery for a living, and can often salvage files that computer stores cannot. Just let me know if you’re interested and I’ll put you in touch with him!
May 11th, 2005 at 8:45 am
Wow - truly God is merciful - I can only imagine the wave of relief and gratitude that must have swept over you when you “found” those files - YEAH!!!
Well this is my first BLOG reply - and I am so glad it goes to you.
I love you and am happy for God’s sanctification process in your life - and happy that you are learning and growing in unanticipated, but good ways! I look forward to time with you after the pressure is off - hopefully a trip to New Hope? : )