For those of you whom are following me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ve probably noticed that over the past 3 or so days, I have been having issues with my laptop and was on the brink of insanity.

It all started when I was using my laptop for my typical activities, such as checking my email, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, etc. It was a normal day in paradise when, unlike any other day, I have some Windows updates to do. Of course, I didn’t think anything of it. There are always updates happening with Windows to fix the many, many problems with it, not to mention security holes, like Internet Explorer, but that’s a whole different story I had a bad experience with.

After being finished for the evening with my laptop, the updates install as I turn my computer off. The next time I turn it on, the next day, my computer is acting just a little funky. Programs I would use on a normal basis were not functioning properly and I was getting a butt load of exe dll errors from Windows. I was still able to manage my way around what I needed to do, while having to click a ‘close’ button from time to time, but nevertheless, finished up, said to myself that I would deal with the issue the next day and turn my laptop off for the night. In the midst of closing up shop that evening, something inside of me said that maybe I should back up my hard drive, but I ignored that little voice and continued on and also noticed that there were more Windows updates that needed to be installed upon shutting down. I ignored them and went to bed. Boy, I should have listened to myself, that’s for sure.

The next day, after work, while trying to wind down, I turn on my laptop expecting to have this crappy issue to deal with from the previous night’s shenanigans, but I didn’t. Of course not. In retrospect I wish I had that to deal with instead of what I did have to endure. During the system bootup (if you want to even call it that) I get this lovely message saying ‘NTLDR not found’ and if you know a thing or two about computers, you know this is bad. I tried to start in safe mode, nothing. I tried to start from the most recent successful point, nothing. It just kept going in a loop. I couldn’t get past it. After an hour or so of arguing internally with myself on whether or not I should use my System Recovery Disk, I realized I didn’t have any other point. I could risk losing everything I had on my computer and end up having a working laptop again, or I could keep everything that was on it and have a $3,000.00 brick that is useless. I didn’t go with the latter of the two.

I “manned up” and decided that I’m going to risk it and reclaim power of my computer and give a nice big “fuck you” to Windows Updates. I went through the process, also choosing not to use the option of reformatting the computer. I was successful in finally being able to boot into the OS. But, where were all my files? They were GONE! This can’t be true, I told my computer to NOT delete everything. I even tried to go back to a former restore point, but there weren’t any.  After being in denial for a few minutes, I concluded that I had probably lost everything. All my photos of Sean from the time of his birth to just the day before would be gone. Everything I had for this very website you’re reading this on, would be gone. The videos from our vacations, things I had put lots of work into, documents I needed, websites I’d built for other people — gone, gone, gone, gone!

Of course, like any normal person would do, I updated my status on Facebook about the terrible ordeal I was suffering. To my surprise, I had gotten a tremendous response from my friends and fellow geeks alike. One response more important than the rest, one that would end up making me drive to Newport, KY at 9:30 at night to have someone back up every priceless memory I had onto the 375 gb Western Digital external hard drive that I should have been using all along but neglected to do so.

Luckily my laptop has two hard drives in it mirroring the other — meaning that when something is saved on one drive, it is immediately backed up on the other drive. After having my M9750 Alienware laptop for about a year and half, I had totally forgotten about this. After a long, tedious process of trying to get past all the ridiculous security features that were on my laptop’s hard drive, we were then able to begin the 2ish hour process of transferring those files from there to my external hard drive. I have 12.1 gb of just pictures alone. JUST PICTURES. That’s a total of 5,216 photos in just my pictures folder. So, yes, it did take a while to transfer from his computer, through the USB cable, but no soldier would be left behind.

When it was all said and done, I was eternally grateful to Dave for having just the right cable, a kind heart and the time to save my sanity and memories. Chris and I treated ourselves to milkshakes from Steak N Shake on our way home and called it a night.

Currently, I am all up and running. Since I had backed up everything, I ended up just reformatting my computer completely and starting fresh. I am currently in the process of rebuilding, but it is harder than I thought to remember every program I had on my computer. I use them all. I don’t keep programs that just take up space either, so this might take some time to get back up to par.

Moral of the story: Back your shit up! I can’t help but think of iJustine in the Mozy.com commercial when I say that and her wearing the shirt that says, “Back the F:/ Up“. Maybe I’ve earned my right to wear that shirt now.

Tell me some of your computer horror stories so I don’t feel so left out. PLEASE!

Related posts:

1. Huge vs. Tiny Ok, first, let me get it out of my system....
2. My Facebook Account Got Hacked Twice In Two Days! FML Dear Carla Garza, We have detected suspicious activity on your...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.