I had three sets of people tell me my external hard drive was a hopeless case! But when I held it to my ear it whirred peacefully and calmly without a clunk or a grunt.
A little man in a little IT shop told me to consider my hard drive as a glass full of water that every time it was moved, unless I was really careful as I would be with a full glass, the whirring piece of machinery lodged on the inside could be knocked off kilter and erase parts of the drive.
Had I dropped it he asked?
What! And spilled all that water?
No, I move it sometimes and I admit I do not consider it as I would a full glass of, come on, let’s go with champagne, but I thought the hard external casing was buffer enough especially as it was plugged into my highly portable laptop.
I now learned my keyboard on which I thump constantly also has very sensitive gadgetry beneath the surface. To hear this naysayer tell it, all my electronic devises have fatal flaws in the design.
He frowned and tutted and informed me he would charge a flat fee just to take it in and try to recover data but quite honestly, he admitted, with a downcast face, it was probably a hopeless case considering HG Wells’ advancing age.
I went home and called the iomega technicians who said they would happily check HG Wells into their rehab centre for a cost of between $900-$2900! Whoah!
After 24 hours without my documents and photos, I was growing used to the idea of loss and clutching my wallet to my chest began to consider surrender. I could always reconstruct my photo library with some help from my youngest daughter’s massive collection of stills.
The following day hubs and I walked my computer and HG Wells into the Apple Store at Covent Garden. I explained my problem in detail to the person assigned to me from the Genius Bar with my fingers crossed and a silent prayer.
He plugged it into one of his macs, nothing. He shook his head.
I asked if the fault could lie in my port connections on the side of my MacBook?
He nodded his head in possible agreement. I had before me a man of few to no words. He turned his attention to his ipad and tapped on it for a moment.
“More bad news I’m afraid,” he said dolefully.
More? Now what? I raised an eyebrow.
“Apple has officially listed this MacBook as a vintage and our in house technicians no longer service them. You will have to send it out to a third party which could cost more than the computer’s worth.”
I shrugged. I’d caught the no words virus.
“I’ll reformat your drive for you which may salvage the iOmega, but you’d lose all your data.”
I silently screamed and snatched HG Wells from him and we left the shop with my vintage model.
In Beckenham we popped into our church. Not to pray but to enquire of the brilliant web master, who also mans the phones and runs the office, if he could help me and my hard drive or at least point me in the direction of someone who may be able to save HG Wells?
Lo and behold, I was given the name of a genius who could ‘flaunt his skill to the glory of the Lord’s name’ and rushed home to give him a call.
He came to the flat to meet with me and HG Wells.
We plugged it into to my Mac and he listened to the peaceful whirring it was making while trying to be recognised on my computer but failing miserably. This was the first person, besides me, who had held HG Wells gently to his ear.
“It sounds good, no clunking or grunting,” he said.
He took it gently home with him and within 3 hours his genius had coaxed a reading on his PC, downloaded a progamme and recovered the files!
He returned to my flat in the rain but my vintage MacBook was digging in its heels. Nothing showed up on my screen, HG Wells whirred quietly, calmly and invisibly.
God’s genius and I did manage to get the files downloaded onto a thumb drive.
The photos and tunes are having to wait in limbo for the purchase of a new external hard drive.
In answer to my prayer,
“Lord, if it’s not too much to ask, send me a genius who can flaunt his skill to the glory of your name and retrieve the irretrievable from my external hard drive and save HG Wells. Amen. Alleluia!”
I can now say,
“Thank you Lord, you’re the best, I’ll remember to back up, back up, back up in future. Amen. Alleluia!”
Hmmm, how does iCloud sound? Heavenly?
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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