As I got down to business on Saturday, furiously typing away at one of my many research papers this semester, a most unfortunate incident occurred. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I felt paralyzed on the inside.
I was reaching for something on the shelf behind my desk when, as often happens, I knocked over the glass of water sitting behind my trusty Macbook Pro. No big deal. I do this all the time. I picked up my computer, moved it to the floor, and started mopping up the massive spillage leaking over everything else in sight. When all was dry, I went back to my computer to resume my work, only, funny thing, the screen would not brighten. No colors or pictures displayed on the LCD monitor. Just black. I frantically hit the power button, but to no avail.
NO!!!!!!!!
I DROWNED MY COMPUTER!
How could I let this happen? How could I be so foolish? An accident, yes, but I felt as though my lifeblood had just been drained!
Immediately after thinking, “Woe is me! I’m doomed! What am I to do?!” I became furious with myself. What had led me to the point of being so dependent on technology that I actually thought my life was over because my laptop died? I regularly back up my files, meaning I had everything saved as of last Tuesday. So I was missing three interviews I had done on Wednesday (Irish Bachelorette Campus Cuties are postponed until further notice. I’m terribly sorry!) and a third of a final paper I had been working on, but the end of the world is nowhere in sight.
Thank goodness I procrastinated on my other papers, otherwise I would be a lot more distraught right now.
All in all, the death of Sasha (yes, I named my computer. And yes, I decorated the keyboard with a Deathly Hallows sticker and my monogram. Deal with it.) taught me many things. First, always back up your files, at least twice a week, and to a hard drive and a cloud. Don’t argue, just do it. Second, that I (we as a generation, nation, population, EVERYONE) rely too much on technology. If I had written out all my notes rather than type them, they would be wet right now but they could dry out. A lot better than a keyboard can. Third, when your computer is water-logged, no one can help you. You are totally alone and even Apple Support will just tell you to go to an Apple Store where they will just tell you they can “gut” your old laptop and replace all the parts with new parts, essentially making it a new laptop, for the price of a new laptop. The lifeless shell that once held your entire world is absolutely useless. Oh, and Apple doesn’t do data recovery. Fourth and finally, awaiting the call from OIT saying they succeeded/failed in recovering one week’s worth of documents is something akin to waiting to hear if your best friend got out of oral surgery safely. You expect the call to be good news, but you must force yourself to accept the fact that things could have gone wrong.
I am deeply saddened by the departure of my dear ally, Sasha, and the role my hand played in its death. That little silver machine put up a good fight, as I am generally a little klutzy and have dropped it many a time. Pray data recovery goes well and I get a call from OIT today. RIP.
BACK UP YOUR FILES. GO DO IT NOW.
***Author’s note: UPDATE – Sasha is ALIVE! OIT is absolutely fabulous! Apple told me there was no coming back from this liquid damage and to find someone to retrieve my files, but Notre Dame’s Office of Information Technology saved my poor, damp computer and brought it back to life!