I have experienced a total hard drive failure of unknown origin. This is...bizarre, to say the least.
I am really good with computers. In fact, it is something I do for a hobby and am considering making it a career (maybe...it doesn't really pay that much). I had set this PC up with a RAID 1 array for my hard drives, meaning that my two hard drives were exact copies of each other. This way, if one hard drive fails (which has happened before), the other one will have all the data. All you would need to do is to install another drive and move on with your life, all of your data and settings are safe.
Sounds great, right? It is supposed to be. Just last week I was thinking to myself, "You know, it may be a good idea to get an external hard drive, back up all my documents, and reformat my PC, because it has been a long time."
Theoretically, it is something that anybody who has important data (pictures, emails, etc) should do. I had every intention of doing it. I had even picked the external hdd out that I wanted to buy.
I'll be damned if this sonofabitch didn't fail on purpose.
I still don't know how it happened. Honestly, barring actual hardware breaking (not the case...both of the drives are healthy and fine), there are only two solutions; user error and malicious software.
I doubt it was malicious software. I am well versed in avoiding viruses, trojans, hackers, and everything else. If this is what it was...it was good, and quick.
9 times out of 10, though, it's the user. I am almost ashamed to admit it, but it has to be the case.
In fact, I'll bet that after it happened, there is still something I could have done to save my data, but it got lost because of something I did while trying to fix it.
Before, I would have had several computers in my house and would have been able to do some sort of data transfer that would have been easy. Right now, though, I am down to this one computer. So, I was fucked.
Because everything is online now, there are only two things that are really more than an inconvenience: porn and personal pictures from my camera.
The porn can, of course, be replaced. with me, it's a very special kind of pornography, so it will take time and energy. I think that a certain amount of recycling is healthy in your pornography. Keeps you out of a rut. Still a pain in the ass, but I can't do anything about it.
The pictures, though...those were my memories. There were probably thousands of pictures of friends, family, my cat, vacations, travel, everything...my life was there. Now, it's gone.
I will never again be able in my life to experience the years between 25 and 35. Now, I am 36. I can't get away with the way I used to act, look, behave, everything. I had a LOT of good times, and I was a cool cat. Those pictures were documentation of my coolness. If I tried to relive that, it would just be pathetic. I am now a serious adult.
So, I know there is a moral to the story, about any number of life lessons you could say, but I am just going to say this:
please, please, please back up your data. You don't know what you will be missing until it's gone.
I am really good with computers. In fact, it is something I do for a hobby and am considering making it a career (maybe...it doesn't really pay that much). I had set this PC up with a RAID 1 array for my hard drives, meaning that my two hard drives were exact copies of each other. This way, if one hard drive fails (which has happened before), the other one will have all the data. All you would need to do is to install another drive and move on with your life, all of your data and settings are safe.
Sounds great, right? It is supposed to be. Just last week I was thinking to myself, "You know, it may be a good idea to get an external hard drive, back up all my documents, and reformat my PC, because it has been a long time."
Theoretically, it is something that anybody who has important data (pictures, emails, etc) should do. I had every intention of doing it. I had even picked the external hdd out that I wanted to buy.
I'll be damned if this sonofabitch didn't fail on purpose.
I still don't know how it happened. Honestly, barring actual hardware breaking (not the case...both of the drives are healthy and fine), there are only two solutions; user error and malicious software.
I doubt it was malicious software. I am well versed in avoiding viruses, trojans, hackers, and everything else. If this is what it was...it was good, and quick.
9 times out of 10, though, it's the user. I am almost ashamed to admit it, but it has to be the case.
In fact, I'll bet that after it happened, there is still something I could have done to save my data, but it got lost because of something I did while trying to fix it.
Before, I would have had several computers in my house and would have been able to do some sort of data transfer that would have been easy. Right now, though, I am down to this one computer. So, I was fucked.
Because everything is online now, there are only two things that are really more than an inconvenience: porn and personal pictures from my camera.
The porn can, of course, be replaced. with me, it's a very special kind of pornography, so it will take time and energy. I think that a certain amount of recycling is healthy in your pornography. Keeps you out of a rut. Still a pain in the ass, but I can't do anything about it.
The pictures, though...those were my memories. There were probably thousands of pictures of friends, family, my cat, vacations, travel, everything...my life was there. Now, it's gone.
I will never again be able in my life to experience the years between 25 and 35. Now, I am 36. I can't get away with the way I used to act, look, behave, everything. I had a LOT of good times, and I was a cool cat. Those pictures were documentation of my coolness. If I tried to relive that, it would just be pathetic. I am now a serious adult.
So, I know there is a moral to the story, about any number of life lessons you could say, but I am just going to say this:
please, please, please back up your data. You don't know what you will be missing until it's gone.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
figmentation:
mauio
sackmann:
"hell yeah".
