No, it’s not the newest shade of lip gloss, a snazzy piece of jewelry, or anything fashion-related for that matter. While my knowledge of computers is limited to what’s absolutely necessary, I’m pretty sure the best purchase I’ve made all year was from Amazon.com’s computer accessories section: an external hard drive.
When the screen on my beloved 3-year-old Macbook started dimming a few months ago, I wasn’t all too concerned. I went back to school confident that I wouldn’t be adding a new laptop to my college expenses. And then one day I clicked on iTunes and was greeted by…. absolutely nothing. That’s right, all of my songs were cleared off. That was about the time I got nervous and gave in to the world of external hard drives.
The second it came in the mail, I transferred everything important (essays, pictures, Her Campus articles) and breathed a sigh of relief once it was all safe and sound outside my aging computer.
And then last night my hard drive crashed. After a brief, yet ineffective visit to the tech folks at Syracuse University, I hopped into my car and headed to the nearest Apple store. Within 24 hours, my precious laptop was back in business, though without any recollection of the past three years.
Moral of the story: spend a little on an external hard drive before you end up spending a lot of time and probably money trying to get those files back. Besides, aren’t all those pictures, songs, and files worth more than a $60 or so price tag? I promise.