I was sitting in my room, looking at my favorite Flash toons when it happened.
My screen turned bright, blinding blue with a very harsh sounding error message. Any key I pressed caused my laptop to cry in pain.
Panicked, I pulled the power cord from the wall, then ejected the battery. The screen went blank, and as I anxiously waited for the “Windows XP” logo to flash, I was dimly aware that a nearby friend asked me if I had ever backed-up my files.
Needless to say, the little logo never flashed across the screen, and I never got back the files I lost. As a writer, some of my best work was lost, gone forever because of a small technical problem that was never really explained to me, and that I wouldn’t have understood anyway. I did manage to find some files, and thankfully a few friends had some as well; however, the setbacks were tremendous and heartbreaking.
No, I’m not cursed by the God (or Goddess) of Technology, at least I don’t think so. Within another few months, something similar happened to my best friend, and unfortunately, she didn’t have a warranty for her laptop. Nearly a month later, and after a check for three hundred dollars, her laptop is back in working order (minus all of her personal files, of course).
“I was so [upset],” she said to me over the phone, “It’s not like backing-up files is a ritual for me, you know?”
What causes this phenomenon? Anything from viruses to dust, to small, crafty little gnomes. Even a computer with massive virus protection is susceptible to a crash. Worse yet, anyone can have a crash at any time, such as college students working on term papers, and web designers working on major projects.
The moral of the story? Back-up-your-files!
I learned my lesson; I keep all my writings and personal data on a small USB flashdrive, as well as a few CD-RWs that I update every once in a while (because flashdrives are easy to misplace).
Think about it; if your PC or laptop crashed at this moment, and was irreparable, would you be prepared?Written by Chris Nasonti
