Welcome To Your Worst Nightmare….
…. and I have lived to tell the tale!
What would be one of the worst things to happen to an Internet Marketer addicted to the Internet? Who’s holy grail is the computer/laptop? – A COMPUTER CRASH! That’s right! Complete and utter non-functioning of vital systems and tools. So there is nothing else to do any more but
- watch TV
- play with the kids
- do housework
- spend some time outdoors… etc…
Well – that’s what’s happened to me. 4 days ago it was like somebody pulled a rug out under me. I toppled. My computer turned into a useless piece of JUNK! Hell, it’s not even a year old!
I could not do anything any more. Zip, Nada. I thought I had been had by a virus..Trojan.. something!! So I had to get the computer experts in. At a horrendous rate per hour, but hey, I’m an addict, so whatever the cost, just get my machine going again!!!
After several hours of doing stuff I have no idea about it was decided that the “Geek” was taking my computer home to locate the problem and repair it. – I haven’t watched so many movies in a looooooong time! Well, the next day I got the news – harddrive “finished” – had to be wiped and then everything restored to it. Well yupidooo, we all know what that means (well, I found out anyway)!
Since I have had the computer back yesterday I had to discover that most (if not all) the software I had installed on my laptop had gone. Do you have any idea how much software I had installed as an avid Internet Marketer? Well, – lots. Thing is, I have to remember now all that was on there before, then try to find it again and reinstall.
ALL my bookmarks in Firefox were gone. I had a list of a mile long of interesting and absolutely necessary websites I needed access to, programs I had subscribed to, my affiliate programs etc. All gone. And so much more. My computer feels and looks empty! Quite devastating.
I feel like a (Internet marketing) warrior mortally hit, trying to get up and running again.
Lesson to be learned? Prepare! Write down everything you sign up for, or download, including passwords and user names. Be diligent with your record keeping. Do it on the spot. Don’t just rely on your computer to remember everything, it can be fatal. Also, have all your access data in a safe place on your computer AND on paper somewhere safe in the house. Also do regular backups of your computer data. It can safe you a lot of trouble should anything bad happen to your favorite toy.
Wish me luck. Hopefully this alien thing called my laptop will soon be restored to its former glory. 😉
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So sorry to hear, anything I can do to help, you know where to find me, just one tip for the future “backup”, but I guess that you know now, SY
.-= hospitalera@blogging help´s last blog ..Prague to Turkey and back Part 1 =-.
@hospitalera, Thanks for the offer, at the moment there is nothing anybody else can do, we are having the “Geek” in again this afternoon to do some more work (on a sunny 28 degree Sunday where there would be tons more fun stuff to do but sit here in the office). I have no idea how much this is going to cost me after, he has spent already many hours working on the probem, my computer is functioning again but there are so many things that have to be “set straight”, and he is costing $120/hour as I mentioned before….. I hope he has a good heart and some compassion!
That sounds like a true nightmare Petra! I have had moments of sheer panic when my laptop plays up, as they tend to do now and again.
I keep on saying I need to maintain proper records and do a regular back up. I keep saying it, but that’s as far as it goes!
Like most people I think….I will do it tomorrow, I am a world leading procrastinator. No doubt I would keep on stressing about why I never backed up my laptop the day before if it ever crashes…
I have so much important stuff on it that I would be set back months if I lost it. You insure your house, keep your belongings safe and your valuables well hidden, but we all think our computers will never crash! When have computers ever been that reliable!!
I have received the kick up the bum I needed and am off to make some back-ups….
Thanks Petra!
@Darren, I was exactly like you, and now I have to pay the price. See, it might never happen to you, but do you want to take the risk? Because if it does, like you say, it will throw you back months. 🙁 I am glad my misfortune shook you up to do something about it!
Petra, I know how you feel.
I have always had this fear that I would lose everything. I had an older laptop (took 20 min to boot) that had my life on it. I was scared to do any updates for fear it would be the last one. Because of that I started some precautions. Like you, my bookmarks are my life so I installed XMarks. You may want to look at it. It is free and they synchronize and store all of your bookmarks on line. It is great and you can access them from any computer no matter where you are.
Finally broke down in August and bought a new laptop. Couldn’t believe it was only about $600 (CAD). When I bought my previous one about 6 years ago it was almost $2000. Wow what a difference!
Enjoy your warm weather. I am on the other side of the globe in Canada where it most definitely is not warm 🙂
$120/hour??? Wouldn’t a new computer be cheaper? SY
.-= hospitalera@blogging help´s last blog ..Prague to Turkey and back Part 1 =-.
Hi Petra,
I am so sorry to hear of this happening to you. In the last 12 months it happened to me twice! 🙁 Last November my hard drive crashed, I needed a new one luckily all my data was saved. Second time in June this year I was not so lucky. I hadn’t backed up for 4 months, lost 4 months of work, data, bought stuff etc etc, but the killer was I lost 4 months of photos of my little one!
I have everything written down, I have important emails printed out and I have 2 back ups of everything, plus I now do the virus etc scanning every week. It was only 2 weeks ago and my computer was in the shop because of virus riddled in it that even the latest and greatest software couldn’t remove!
I was told by my tech guys that if we are working online it is important to be diligent in backing up and maintaining our computer is a bit like servicing a car.
Good luck with your re build. All the best.
Jacinta 😀
@Jacinta, your tech guys sound like they gave you some sound advice! I will certainly be a lot more careful in the future and have my data backed up and saved and written down all over the place! What bad luck for it to happen to you twice! I can imagine what it feels like to lose photos of your children – we were on a 4 week holiday in Germany 2 years ago and took lots of videos, and I had not written on the little DV tape what was on it so a few months after I used the tape just to find afterwards that I had pretty much erased my holiday videos of the kids and me…. I felt sick and cried and cried. You will never get something like that back…
Hey Petra,
Hope you got your data back. I’m a programmer and I know how easy it is to rely on your computer rather than keeping manual records.
Like you say, its worth keeping a notebook which contains details of all the accounts you’ve signed up for, along with username and passwords ….. oh and investing in an external hard drive for backups.
Keep in touch
John
.-= John Tanner´s last blog ..How I Created My First Product – Send2Kunaki.Com =-.
@John, guess what, got an external “constantly automatic back up” hard drive yesterday!
Hi Petra,
I’m really sorry about what happened. It must be horrible to lose all the software and have everything cleaned out. Even losing all the bookmarks would be quite upsetting in itself.
I hope that the computer guy won’t charge you for all the hours he had your laptop at home. In that case it may have been better to get a brand new computer.
I don’t have any backup either and don’t even know how to do it properly.
Perhaps when you get back to normal you could make a post about a back up system.
Vance
@Vance, I was actually pretty lucky – the computer geek only charged for 3 hours (!!!!!!!!!) and he was working on it a lot longer than that…
Yes, I hate to benefit form someone else’s bad luck Petra but I have done some much needed back-ups and have committed my various passwords and log-in ID’s to paper (kept in a safe place of course!).
I actually feel better for doing it, it’s one less thing to worry about.
@Darren, I am glad that my bad luck got you to take a proactive step! It is very important, trust me 😉
Petra, I couldn’t even imagine having to go through something like that!? Unfortunately, I would be in the exact same place you are, as I don’t back up my computer nearly enough.
Thanks for the post, because hopefully your trials will help others like me…. WAKE UP!… before it’s too late….
.-= Darvin @ Inexpensive Gifts for Men´s last blog ..Christmas Gifts for Men =-.
i feel sorry for this.really it is horrible to loose everything.but from your experience i learned lot of things here.i keep your post for future because till now i never faced this thing.
Petra,
Love your post – Welcome to my worst nightmare. Unbelievable, I had the same thing happen to me 3 weeks ago. Called the Geek Squad and they pronounced my 3 year old computer DOA.
The result was my spending $1200 (not exactly in the budget) on a new computer with Windows7. All sorts of new stuff to learn there!
.-= Beth@Patio String Lights´s last blog ..About Us =-.
Just a few months ago — with an older computer. But, same affect. I ended up having to buy a new computer. I didn’t want to pay the computer geek a few hundred dollars it would take to restore the computer. It was an, “Absolute nightmare!” You would think, I would have prepared for it better but I didn’t. So I bought a new computer, and as you did, tried to remember everything that was on their.
I am laughing at myself. Halfway through reading this post, I stopped and hooked up my external hard drive so that I can get my backup started. I really need to get this set up on some kind of schedule. It’s been at least a month since the last time I did it.
.-= Liza @ Candle Making at Home´s last blog ..Candle Making at Home – A Creative Hobby =-.
@Liza, keep backing up, please! It’s not worth it to lose all the data….
I don’t know why people would spend lots of many to get their laptops fixed when they could pick up a new one with extra money.
@Helen Hunt, it cost me $360 in the end, and a new computer would have cost $2000, plus you’d have a problem with the data transer etc. My Computer is fine again, and not everybody has some spare money lying around (Yet!).
I had a similar experience – but mine was self induced. I kind of got a bit agitated as to how much rubbish my machine was collecting and decided a re-format was in order.
After tring to remember everything I wanted to keep, I forgot really important things such as emails (duh!) and a couple of almost finished projects. 🙁 Also all the XP updates that had to be downloaded – it just was worthwhile.
So, yes I feel your pain!
.-= Jane@Indoor Tanning Lotions´s last blog ..Tan Accelerator – Bronzers =-.
Hell, I meant “it just wasn’t worthwhile”.
Damn typos!
.-= Jane@Indoor Tanning Lotions´s last blog ..Tan Accelerator – Bronzers =-.
This is really a big trouble for guys like us who hangs around computer for 14 hours. I had also passed through such case recently. I got my computer working just 3 days ago. My OS got problem and it couldn’t be loaded. All it was doing was restarting the computer automatically when Windows started to load. I tried and tried but couldn’t get it till I formatted it.
Thanks god , I had backup for all my software but still I lost my data and recently completed jobs list in software. It was a great pain.
I wish these type of problem never comes specially to guys like us.
.-= Prabib@3GP Video Converter´s last blog ..3GP Video Converter, TouchUpSoft Products Review =-.
Did you get the email about the online storage I send you? 2GB for free are not much, but better then nothing! I am seriously adding now online backup to my routine also, SY
.-= hospitalera@oes tsetnoc´s last blog ..Time is money, don’t waste it! =-.
@hospitalera, I did get the email, thanks for that, but what I have done is got online backup through Carbonite, and I also bought an external hard drive to back my data on.
@Petra
Great! I just wanted to make sure you think of online backup as one more step to add to the mix 😉 Look there is nice material in for a follow up blog post “How I now backup my data”. Perhaps Carbonite has even a referral program that you could use? Always the best to promote programs / services that you use and are really happy with, it really transmits to our readers, and following that — our sales, SY
PS Seems there is a problem with your comment form, it is now the second time that when I hit “submit” I get your 404page, I need then to use the back button on my browser and the second time the comment gets through ;-(
PPS Oops, happened again! If it doesn’t post this time, I willl send you an email regarding that and yes, I have waited until the Commentluv has found my blog feed!
.-= hospitalera@oes tsetnoc´s last blog ..Time is money, don’t waste it! =-.
Hey Petra
I can so relate to you. I went through the “computer crash” ordeal just a month back and still suffering from its jitters (laptop keeps restarting without warning). Initially when it happened, I felt completely devastated but then I realised that things were not so bad. I had all my excel and documents records on Gdocs (yeah, online back-up 😉 ). I have been typing for so long now, that I now find it difficult to write! So keeping a notebook wouldn’t be easy for me.
I suggest you can also keep an online back-up at Gdocs (important excels and docs). As for more advanced options, there are sites like Blackblaze you can subscribe to. But the applications like Skype, Gtalk etc. and other softwares all have to be downloaded again after the computer comes back “clean”.
Trust me, it seems like you have moved into a new house, you have to arrange all the furniture all over again.
Technology has made my life far more organized, and has accelerated the pace and volume of certain work that helps me both professionally and personally.Well i learned from your experience.
I couldn’t even imagine going through something like that! Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl….
I know I don’t backup NEARLY enough, so I thank you for reminding us all of the importance of doing so.
.-= David @ Yoga and Weight Loss´s last blog ..Do Follow Blog, Comment Luv and Keyword Luv =-.
sometimes it id difficult to recover you computer.i can understand this because i faced this thing.but i recovered my data.but your experience is really good learning for all of us.thanks to you for sharing it.
In the back of my mind I am aware this can happen and try to avoid the pitfall you encountered. I got a virus on my computer once and upon start up it went into an infinite loop. I eventually fixed the problem with the help of a computer literate friend. I think computer problems need to happen once for us to take security and maintenance more seriously.
I am breaking into a cold sweat just thinking about a computer crash… though I do have my computer hooked up to time machine, a system that backs up your computer regularly.
.-= Michelle@Time Management´s last blog ..Feb 6, 15 Time Management Tips: House Cleaning and Organizing =-.
Wow, that’s scary. I can basically point and click. I have an iMac so I hope I don’t experience what you did.
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Wow this is really a painful experience. I can imagine myself loosing all the files when your computer crash down. Tanks for sharing this post. I learned a lot from the comment posted here.