I hope in 20 years when Samuel and Oliver read this blog technology will have come far enough that they laugh at the following statement: "Our hard drive crashed and it has taken 1 month to rebuild our files!" I imagine them looking at each other and saying, "what's a hard drive?".
I also wonder if in 20 years they will look back and say, "Yes, it was Windows 8 that made Microsoft go bankrupt". Right now I would be happy if Microsoft didn't exist. Actually, I kinda dislike Google too. The entire lot seems to be in cahoots against us.
Here is the quick rundown for posterity sake:
- Computer won't boot. Try for 3 days to boot it thinking maybe it was just tired and needed a little break. After 4 days finally convinced it won't work.
- Get help from IT at Playworks. Sadly they inform us the hard drive crashed and nothing can be recovered. Shed a few tears.
- Go buy a new computer. Can't take the plunge for an Apple so we go with a PC. Only option is Windows 8. I hate it from the first boot up. Why is there no "start" button and how do you find any programs? Very mysterious things happen when you move the mouse in different directions. Still figuring it all out and still convinced it sucks.
- New computer doesn't want to play nice with our old printer. Best Buy people tell us it isn't possible to use such an old printer with new software and hardware. After much web surfing we learn there is an adapter. Order online and wait 5-7 business days until we can print. Oops, wrong cable. Different cable is found (not sure how--this was Kevin's job). Printing finally works!
- Spend almost every night rebuilding our files from the various places we back up/store things. Sugar Sync was backing up all documents and photos from 2011 to present. Unfortunately Sugar Sync upgraded to a "new and improved look" causing major delays as we learn how to use the new application to get our documents from the cloud back to our hard drive.
- Get photos from 2010 off the red thumb drive, 2009 off the silver thumb drive and 2008 and earlier off the external hard drive. Really, why did we think storing photos in 4 places was a good idea.
- Decided to take the plunge and switch to online (Google) calendar so we can sync Playworks, Seacology and Family calendars. In order to make Google calendars we had to create new Google gmail accounts. Spent at least 3 nights trying to figure out creating Google accounts and gmail.
- In the process of making new gmail accounts, accidentally disabled unknown gmail account that was somehow connected to our sbcglobal account. By disabling this account I no longer had access to all my Picasa photos or my blog. Minor panic attack when I tried to sign onto the blog and it said "Deleted".
- Spent another night (or three) figuring out what I did and how to undo it all.
- Finally got all photos on the hard drive. Now I have to figure out how to get them into the new Picasa account. Of course, Google won't let you just transfer from one account to another.
- Photos finally on Picasa.
- Blog re-enabled except I have to login/logout from various accounts to gain access. Google also won't let you just export/import blog posts into another account. We have to keep our old account open and add an author. Seems risky but I see no other option.
- Music. Oh yes, the mistaken belief that just because music is copied onto my iTouch that I can just copy it back to my computer. Doesn't work this way. Music only syncs one way. In order to get music off our iTouch and onto our computer we have to buy a third party app for $30. Guess Google is "free" after all.
- What else....I am sure we will encounter more trouble a mere month after losing our hard drive. Makes me want to cry.
