Breathe and Reboot

The Story

What a nightmare! Last Friday (01/19/2008), my hard drive killed itself. One minute my laptop was working fine, the next.. hello, blank screen. I frantically called HP and they walked me through a few diagnostic tests to see what was going on. Diagnosis? Fried hard drive. And because I am an idiot, I have NEVER backed up any of my information on my computer.

When I told Gabe (boyfriend) and Michael (cousin/roommate), the first thing they both asked was if I had backed up. Immediately, my brain jumped to an episode in Sex and the City where Carrie's Mac crashed. All her friends and boyfriend asked her if she backed up. She responded, "no one talks about backing up...apparently, everyone is secretly running home at night and backing up their work." I couldn't have put it better. No one has ever explained "backing up" or that I had to back up my work. I thought "backing up" was something the computer did on its own.

Needless to say, I had lost all of my work (including all of my notes since I started med school) and I had a dead hard drive to deal with. What to do? What to do? Because I was still under my warranty, HP sent a new hard drive to my home in Miami that following Monday. (HP doesn't ship outside of the USA.) Then, my mom had to immediately take it to Amerijet that night because Amerijet flies out to Dominica once a week on every Tuesday. If she didn't get it in by 8:00 pm Monday night, I would have had to wait a whole week without a new hard drive. (Total cost to send the box overnight from Miami to Dominica = US $160.00) The new hard drive arrived on Tuesday but of course, I couldn't pick it up until Wednesday. Whenever you send anything over here (either by plane or boat), you usually cannot pick it up till the next day after customs has cleared it. PS: the total cost (customs + Alexis' service charge to pick up the package in the capital) was US$60.00.

OK, so my computer broke on Friday and I had my new hard drive in my hands by that following Wednesday. To make things worse, HP sent me the wrong hard drive so I ghetto rigged it to fit. I could not imagine having to send it back and wait for HP to send another new hard drive that may or may not be the right one.

Then, I had to put my defective hard drive back in the box HP sent and take it to DHL in Portsmouth to ship it back to Miami. This cost me US$40.00.

My mom received my defective hard drive this past Monday (exactly a week after she had first received the new hard drive from HP) Now, it is up to her to take it to a Best Buy or CompUSA to see if they can recover any of the data. Who knows how much that'll cost.

Lastly, my mom has 15 days from the day she received my new hard drive to return the defective hard drive back to HP. If HP doesn't have my old hard drive within 15 days, they will charge me for the new hard drive.

See how difficult things are just because you live in the Caribbean? Welcome to my daily frustrations...

So, why the crazy long story? So that everyone can learn.

1) Everyone, please back up your computers!! Buy a backup system or manually do it yourself by copying all of your files from your computer on to a flash drive or external hard drive.

2) For those coming to Dominica, buy an external hard drive (for backing up) and if you can afford another laptop or if you have an extra laptop lying around - bring it! I know it is a hassle to bring two laptops but if I had done that, life would have been much easier for me. If you only have one computer and it breaks, you're going to spend over a week without a computer while you either ship your old one back to the States for repair or while you wait for the new part that broke to be sent to you. But if you have a backup computer, then you will lose no sleep because you still have all of your files from your old computer (on your external hard drive) and you have a computer that works. Of course, this is just a recommendation - albeit, a costly one. I am currently trying to find a cheap but reliable "back up" computer. Thank God for loan money!

If you cannot afford an extra laptop or just simply don't want to bring one, you have two options. You can spend that week or maybe two (while your computer is being repaired) in the library. They have computers there that you can use. Or, the IT department here at Ross lends out desktop computers if yours breaks. However, it takes them forever to get one to you. I informed them on January 19, 2008 that my laptop broke and I needed to borrow a computer. They called me on January 28, 2008 to tell me they had one ready. However, I did not hound them for the temporary computer because I new I'd have my old one fixed in less than a week.
Maybe if you hound them, you can get one sooner. Also, I don't know how long they let you "borrow" their computer for.

3) I don't know why my computer fried, though I have several theories. The most plausible is that a low voltage spike killed it. Not only is it hard on you to live here, but it is also hard for your computer. As I wrote before, IT installs new drives and installs new anti-virus software. You are also putting a TON of new documents and information on to your computer more than you probably ever have before. Also, if you connect your computer to a surge protector, this only protects your computer against high voltage spikes (such as a lightning strike). This leaves your computer unprotected towards low voltage spikes that can harm your computer. IT told me that the best way to protect your computer against the low spikes is to buy a "Uninterrupted Power Supply/Source/System" which is like a battery back-up system. When the voltage falls too low, the battery back-up will turn on to give a continuous supply of power. This is my understanding of a UPS. If I am wrong, please let me know.

If you have read this whole posting, you're a champ. I know it was long and not particularly funny or charming. I wrote it partly for venting purposes and partly for educational purposes. Regardless, thanks for reading!

Love you all,
The Girl Who Doesn't Back Up