This is topic The five stages of computer crashes: anger, anger, anger, anger, acceptance in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.
Earlier this year I had a mini-stroke that put me in the hospital for three days. Last night I drove home through thunderstorms to find my computer hard drive had been fried to a nice toasty brown. Overall, I'd say the mini-stroke was more fun. At least then I got morphine.
If you've never lost a hard drive, the comparison isn't as odd as you might think. You're caught by surprise, shocked at the suddenness and unfairness of it. The feeling of loss, of frustration, of not being able to do everything you once took for granted; all that crashes down on you and you're left with a pounding headache and an unanswered plea to the deity of your choice.
Although in my experience, with a computer crash you tend to kick things more.
My condolences, Chris.
Posted by Uprooted (Member # 8353) on :
Perfect, as always . . . especially the part about probably not backing up anything after all is said and done!
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
quote:...but I will have to suffer the PC guy who tries to retrieve my hard drive data snickering at my musical tastes and loudly asking why my collection of educational films all have "Brandi" in the filename.
I guess it's telling that I thought this was the funniest line in the whole article.
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
Great article, as usual Chris. I laughed out loud at that line too, JT.
Sorry 'bout the hard drive.
Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
quote:...Considered going my traditional computer repair route but couldn't find the hammer.
--j_k
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
I still have not performed even rudimentary experiments to see what's fried and what isn't. As long as I don't look, the continued existence of my hard drive is in a quantum state...
I've got my HD, my secondary HD, and an external drive. It'll be annoying to lose the first (programs, OS, e-mail, some documents), really annoying to lose the external (backups), and excruciating to lose the secondary (all my workfiles, music, downloads, scanned artwork, etc). Sigh.
Near as I can figure my computer was protected but my cable box was not and it took a hit, passing it along to my computer. I have faint hopes that I can remove the network card from my computer and watch it magically spring to life, but I ain't counting on it.
Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
I don't know if it can make you feel better, but your hard drive problem was the cause for a wave of joy and laugh across the planet.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
That's been my response to bad news for some time now. "Well, at least I can get a column out of it..." Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I know how this goes. My computer keeps memory dumping, freezing, seeming like it's going to boot up then cutting off for quite a while. So now I have to wait for a new one... It will take forever!
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
I am conditionally happy.
Took my two HDs over to my brother-in-law's and hooked 'em into his system, and could access both of them. This suggests that my motherboard is fried but my HDs are OK, which (if true) is a lot more than I expected.
Also, looks like my cable modem is OK but my wireless router is hosed. I can connect directly to the cable modem with my laptop -- as I am now -- but while I get a good strong signal from the wireless connection I can't get online.
Currently I'm planning on shopping for a new system, but it is a huge relief that I may not have lost my data.
Doesn't invalidate the column, though...
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
quote:Originally posted by Chris Bridges: I still have not performed even rudimentary experiments to see what's fried and what isn't. As long as I don't look, the continued existence of my hard drive is in a quantum state...
So, you have Schrodinger's hard drive?
Posted by dantesparadigm (Member # 8756) on :
No, I think he's saying he put a cat in his tower to troubleshoot.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Exactly. If I never collapse the wavefunction of my hard drives, I never have to know...
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
I had a sudden overwhelming desire to back up everything...
And then I realized that I'm on a new laptop, and all of my data is still safe on the old one.
Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :
quote:And I work with computers for a living, which just grinds in that extra little salt-in-the-wounds annoyance. It's like being a nutritionist with scurvy.
ROFL.
Good news on the still-working hard drives. Though, if the system has sustained one surge already, chances are the life expectancy of the affected drives has shortened considerably. Factor this into your plans for future storage and backup. Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Memory is cheap, real cheap. At least the computer type.
I saw a 350 gig HD (external) at Circut City last night for $220.
I bought a 160 gig HD (internal) for $50 about a month ago.
I would consider replacing the HD's and transferring the data fro the current ones. It will save you trouble in teh long run, IMO.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
That's the plan. I still hate having to set everything up again, and remember all the little non-intuitive details that make every program go, but at least I'm starting from a better position. I'm going to stop on the way home and grab an enclosure for my HD so I can get to the stuff easily for now.
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