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1.28.2013

LESSON LEARNED (THE HARD WAY)

A little over two years ago, I purchased my very first MacBook Pro.  
It was love at first sight. We rarely ever separate, me and my Mac.  
That was until last Saturday.....


The feisty little thing decided to play an evil trick on me and crash!
I know, can you believe it.  
I think, perhaps, I was a little over confident in my Mac.
I liked to brag to my family about how it was virus free and so easy to use.
All the while, laughing at them as they fumbled around on their, clearly inferior, PCs.
Well, who's laughing now? Not me.....

I had to hand my precious Mac over to the genius bar at the Apple Store.
The corrupted hard drive and battery both had to be replaced.
Fortunately, I purchased Apple care when I bought it two years ago, 
so the repairs were completely covered.

Here's where the lesson learned comes in....
I had never once backed up my hard drive. 
We had an external hard drive, but it was formatted for a PC.
I never got around to buying one for my Mac.
I bought one on Friday and tried to back everything up before the old hard drive was removed.
It was too corrupted to back up, even the geniuses couldn't do it.
I have years and years worth of pictures on that hard drive and thousands of songs.
Most of the pictures has been uploaded to Shutterfly,
but I hadn't quite got around to uploading pictures from 2011 and 2012.

Boy, am I kicking myself now!
The geniuses at the genius bar referred me to a Apple certified data recovery specialist.
My corrupted hard drive is now in his hands.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that he can at least get my pictures back.

I will now be backing up my brand new hard drive each and every week.
I will also be uploading my pictures to Shutterfly on a monthly basis.
I guess sometimes you just have to learn the hard way.

On a positive note, the geniuses at the genius bar told it may take up to 5 days to fix my computer.
I had been looking for a good excuse to invest in an I-pad and that qualified as one.
I am the proud owner of an I-pad, finally!
Now, if I could pry it out of the hands of my children.
They seem to having a little too much fun with it!



Strangely enough, after being apart from my beloved computer for 14 hours
(not that I was counting or anything),
I got a call saying my computer was repaired and ready to be picked up.
I am now working with a brand spanking new (empty) hard drive.

Obviously, I haven't lost faith in Apple products
and I am always impressed with their service.
But I now know that my Mac is not indestructible, like I thought it was.
I think I'll be a little more gentle with it from now on.....

11 comments:

  1. We are Mac lovers as well. I am guilty of thinking too highly of my Mac too. I'm going to get an external hard drive and back up both of my Mac computers this week. Thanks for the advice!!

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  2. i am sitting here with my mac that will be two years old in june, and i am scared.

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  3. Oh so sad!! I thought they were virtually indestructible too! I'm horrified to hear this happened to you….makes me want to stay up late tonight and upload every last photo. Thanks for sharing your story….I'm definitely going to get an external hard drive too. Sorry for your headache, but hope you're having fun with your new toy!

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  4. So sorry, Andrea! I can't imagine losing two years of your family photos. Hope all works out!

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  5. Oh my goodness..... my heart is in my stomach. I'm so sorry! I hope they can be recovered for you! I make a habit of plugging my back-up harddrive in each evening when I go to bed. Enjoy your new iPad...... Ashtyn does amazing artwork on hers and she just recreated our entire house floorplan with furniture and fabrics for a school project. I'll have to find out the apps she is using and send them to you..... you (and the kids) will work magic!

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  6. Oh my that is a total bummer, keeping my fingers crossed you can recover those photos! We recently (as in last week) converted to an imac desktop after years of using a PC and I am still trying to figure it all out, but so far I LOVE it! Thankfully I am married to a guy who regularly backs up our hard drive, but just the same, the day we got our mac, the PC was infected with a virus and I had 36 hours of being afraid we wouldn't be able to recover all of our files, it all worked out, so hope the same is true for you!

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  7. Oh my goodness Andrea, and this is why I'm going to devote time each night to getting my photos together and organized. We have been meaning to get an external hard drive and just need to do it. This is what makes me so nervous. I hope you get your photos back - that is the most important thing. Keep us posted. I do love our Mac products and they do have great service - hopefully they come through for you.

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  8. That's good to know. Last Christmas my husband bought me an iPad and then on my birthday last March he bought me a MacBook Air and an iMac. Probably the best birthday ever! But I will certainly be more careful too.

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  9. Andrea, My laptop crashed last week too but luckily they were able to save most of my data. I just signed up for Carbonite so if it happens again I can retrieve all my files and pictures. Sorry you lost so much!
    xx, Sherry

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  10. Ugh, I'm so sorry. Mine hit two years and started making some noise so I ran to start backing up. I have to admit I never did it before but am more diligent about it now. It was just some dust in the fan and it is working perfectly but you never know. I love Apple products and have never really had issues with any of mine but things do happen and it is better to be safe. Glad you are up and running again but I'm sorry you lost so much :(

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  11. oh girl you just reminded me I need to plug in my external hard drive and back up - haven't done it in a while. I had the exact same thing happen a few years ago - I lost all almost all of my baby pics of Josie - thankfully I was good about printing them back then. Anywho - I totally feel your pain so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for ya! And girl good luck with the iPad - my kids LOVE it - they make the funniest videos - I should share one on the blog sometime - they are hilarious!

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