IT HAPPENED TO ME. . . .
Yes, my nice iMac desktop computer hit the high road and crashed big time. I knew it was having a hard time finding the software when I saw the question marks flashing on the screen when I turned it on....I googled it and indeed it said it was either the mouse or the hard drive was having trouble seeing the start up software and programs. It happened a few times and then I knew I needed to back it up. I asked Nef one night to please back it up before going to bed and of course, Nef readily volunteered to do it. Only it didn't happen. He started to go downstairs and accomplish the task and then got side-tracked, he did ask how to do it and I explained how-he just never made it to the room to get it done. So, of course, when I knew it wasn't going to turn on, I called the Apple Store and brought it right down. It didn't take long before I got the dreaded phone call stating that they could not retrieve any info from it. They suggested we take it to a Mac repair store to see if they could retrieve anything from the hard drive. All the while, I was looking just like the lady in that photo-I cried several times knowing that all 25,000 photos were gone, all documents, scrapbook ideas, school files, etc....gone-just plain gone!
Yep, that's right-the Mac Doc's in SLC couldn't retrieve anything from it either. They suggested that we go online and find a place we could mail it off to and sometimes they could delve deeper into it and get all the files. So looking online, we found a place that charged $850 just to look and then $250 to retrieve jpeg images. So we were looking at about $1,100 plus just to start the process. I couldn't do it-so again I started crying and finally decided I would get the external hard drive and pray that I had at least had an auto back up from a few months ago-May or June.....
I guess the praying worked or maybe it saved Nef from getting a good beatin'-one or the other. When I plugged in the hard drive on the Mac laptop-I about fainted. Miraculously it had auto backed up the NIGHT before it crashed!!! How is that for a total miracle? I think I screamed loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear and at the same time I also let Nef know he could now relax and wouldn't have to wash dishes for the next 20 years or do the ALL the laundry, cook, clean, pay the bills, etc..... He had been saved. I was in total distress because I knew that I had just downloaded over 1,000 photos from my camera a few weeks ago from first day of school, Cancun, summer trips, marching band competitions, Lacrosse games and so much more. I automatically set iphoto to delete all originals from my camera after uploading them to the library. WOW!!!!
So now the daunting task of putting everything back on the hard drive. Yes, I did get a new hard drive on that same computer. They won't let me get another protection care plan on it though. So we're on our own.....ugh!!! I almost forgot another great part of the story. Unbeknownst (is that a word?) to us we "thought" our warranty with the apple care protection plan expired in December. Of course, as Garcia luck would have it and to top off this horrible incident, it expired one little week prior to the crash. Nef, again used his charm, and because it was sooooo close to the date of the crash persuaded the manager into doing the fix/repair {new hard drive} for FREE!!! Thank heavens again for small little miracles.
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