Life without internet

Chillhouse · 2 Weeks Ago

1,500 Unread Posts since your last visit.

Cripes! Never again. The most advanced piece of technology I had for a week was a radio. It was terrible.

I had a hardrive failure, ladies and gentlemen. Let this be a lesson to you all: regularly back up your files. I didn't. And now aproximately 500 short stories I wrote over the course of eight years will never see the light of day. They probably never would have seen the light of day anyway, but now they're gone forever. It costs upwards of $1000 to recover data from broken harddrives, and even then it isn't a sure thing.

So I bought me a tiny netbook that was on clearence for $300. It's not very powerful, but I don't use computers much other than for surfing the web and writing stuff. Tommorow i'm going to buy a 4gig drive to keep my most important files on.

It's good to be back. For a second there I thought I might actualy be recovering from my internet addiction! That's a scary thought.

Oh yeah, and happy Halloween.

ballucanb · 2 Weeks Ago

Never give away or sell your old computer, that is my back up, I have my old machine here just incase.

thanksforallthefish · 2 Weeks Ago

I learn't that the hard way. I was working on a project, and lost it all. Luckily I had printed versions, but I had to spend about 20 solid hours scanning each piece of paper, then correcting the OCR software.

Since then I've got Dropbox. Fantastic website. You get 2gb of space for free which syncs files between your computer(s), and their servers. Keeps everything up to date. Makes files virtually impossible to delete (you can even look at previous versions of files), and you can restore all your documents instantly on any machine. Saved me from many times!

Because I'm shameless, here's a referral link! Gets both of us 250mb extra space.

https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTg3NjYxMzk

tk7432 · 2 Weeks Ago

It is good that you got the internet back. Feel bad that 8 years of work is gone but we got to give some hope.

NutFreeFruitcake · 2 Weeks Ago

It is generally advised that people back up their data in two places.

Hard drive failures are very common, and people's data tends to hold at least clear sentimental value. Generally, one loses significant work (all of your current business items), if not data with actual financial value. This is something people should be paranoid about, at least as long as the traditional mechanical spinning HDD is the dominant form of data storage.

Having had my laptop HDD fail, long before its warranty was up, my backup saved me a great deal of hassle. I don't continuously back up (I would with a desktop), but I had backed up within the week. All I lost was a week's worth of email from my outlook file, which I could manually find in Gmail if needed. After that experience, I make a much bigger deal to others about the necessity of data backup.

ShippoFox · 2 Weeks Ago

I've had this happen about 5 yrs ago. It almost happened again 2 yrs ago, but I was lucky to recover the data (removed the drive from the dead laptop and put it in an enclosure) Now I have a few external hard drives, DVDs, and flash drives. I really should make sure to actually back up stuff though. It would kinda suck to only have a half-backup.

doubledbbw · 2 Weeks Ago

I was in this boat earlier this year and it sucked. I had one computer in the shop with hard drive issues being looked at(it later had to be replaced because it would not load new data). My other computer was in the middle of an important update when my modem decided to go out. I got a new modem free from my Internet provider shipped to me in one day. But my computer also had to go to the shop at Best Buy and they ended up changing the hard drive on that one too. Talk about bad luck. I am just glad I have the extended Geek Squad protection plan on both computers.

TallestBabyEver · 2 Weeks Ago

had this happen to me TWICE. First time the hard drive crashed under warranty, plus i hadn't had it for that long and most of what i lost i didn't care about. Music was backed up on my home comp.

The second time was when my laptop was stolen from my apartment. Hard to back that up. Lost my resume, some "personal" pics (take a wild guess), and some music. All the stuff was password protected so im pretty sure my identity is safe along with my dignity. The worst part was living without decent internet for almost a month. It was a nightmare. I'm still putting things back together after this incident, it still pisses me off to this day. Now i've moved, have my shiney new comp and am posting today.

Huggies1998 · 2 Weeks Ago

I've never experienced a hard drive failure, surprisingly - and I work with 15 year old computers!

andysetra · 2 Weeks Ago

This happened to me last June. I (stupidly) had lapsed on making backups and was 7-8 months behind - then my WinXP (C

drive died...that was 7-8 months of digital camera pics, other pics and small files - lost.

Luckily I keep all my mp3s and media files on separate drives. I now have a Seagate 200gb drive sitting on my shelf that has a bad controller, but presumably good platters that still hold my info...

I even tried the freezer trick, but when the drive is hooked up to a computer, said computer takes SO long to boot (xp & linux ... both take a long time) that by the time it's ready, the drive is meltingly hot again...

Anyway, good to hear you're back up and running. Life with internet... does such a thing even exist nowadays?

2 Weeks Ago	#1 (permalink)
Chillhouse العالم العربي والاسلامى Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: gta Age: 18 Posts: 2,121 Threads: 122 Blog Entries: 54 Reputation: 88	Life without internet 1,500 Unread Posts since your last visit. Cripes! Never again. The most advanced piece of technology I had for a week was a radio. It was terrible. I had a hardrive failure, ladies and gentlemen. Let this be a lesson to you all: regularly back up your files. I didn't. And now aproximately 500 short stories I wrote over the course of eight years will never see the light of day. They probably never would have seen the light of day anyway, but now they're gone forever. It costs upwards of $1000 to recover data from broken harddrives, and even then it isn't a sure thing. So I bought me a tiny netbook that was on clearence for $300. It's not very powerful, but I don't use computers much other than for surfing the web and writing stuff. Tommorow i'm going to buy a 4gig drive to keep my most important files on. It's good to be back. For a second there I thought I might actualy be recovering from my internet addiction! That's a scary thought. Oh yeah, and happy Halloween.

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2 Weeks Ago	#2 (permalink)
ballucanb Regular Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: none Posts: 1,729 Threads: 3 Reputation: 18	Never give away or sell your old computer, that is my back up, I have my old machine here just incase.

2 Weeks Ago	#3 (permalink)
thanksforallthefish Regular Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 37 Threads: 3 Reputation: 1	I learn't that the hard way. I was working on a project, and lost it all. Luckily I had printed versions, but I had to spend about 20 solid hours scanning each piece of paper, then correcting the OCR software. Since then I've got Dropbox. Fantastic website. You get 2gb of space for free which syncs files between your computer(s), and their servers. Keeps everything up to date. Makes files virtually impossible to delete (you can even look at previous versions of files), and you can restore all your documents instantly on any machine. Saved me from many times! Because I'm shameless, here's a referral link! Gets both of us 250mb extra space. https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTg3NjYxMzk

2 Weeks Ago	#4 (permalink)
tk7432 Regular Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: In my hood Age: 17 Posts: 842 Threads: 34 Wiki Edits: 2 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 6	It is good that you got the internet back. Feel bad that 8 years of work is gone but we got to give some hope.

2 Weeks Ago	#5 (permalink)
NutFreeFruitcake VIP Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Texas, USA Posts: 159 Threads: 1 Reputation: 15	It is generally advised that people back up their data in two places. Hard drive failures are very common, and people's data tends to hold at least clear sentimental value. Generally, one loses significant work (all of your current business items), if not data with actual financial value. This is something people should be paranoid about, at least as long as the traditional mechanical spinning HDD is the dominant form of data storage. Having had my laptop HDD fail, long before its warranty was up, my backup saved me a great deal of hassle. I don't continuously back up (I would with a desktop), but I had backed up within the week. All I lost was a week's worth of email from my outlook file, which I could manually find in Gmail if needed. After that experience, I make a much bigger deal to others about the necessity of data backup.

2 Weeks Ago	#6 (permalink)
ShippoFox foxfoxfoxfoxfox Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: PA Age: 23 Posts: 1,329 Threads: 21 Gallery Uploads: 7 Wiki Edits: 2 Blog Entries: 34 Reputation: 23	I've had this happen about 5 yrs ago. It almost happened again 2 yrs ago, but I was lucky to recover the data (removed the drive from the dead laptop and put it in an enclosure) Now I have a few external hard drives, DVDs, and flash drives. I really should make sure to actually back up stuff though. It would kinda suck to only have a half-backup.

2 Weeks Ago	#7 (permalink)
doubledbbw Regular Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: USA Age: 51 Posts: 363 Threads: 17 Reputation: 3	I was in this boat earlier this year and it sucked. I had one computer in the shop with hard drive issues being looked at(it later had to be replaced because it would not load new data). My other computer was in the middle of an important update when my modem decided to go out. I got a new modem free from my Internet provider shipped to me in one day. But my computer also had to go to the shop at Best Buy and they ended up changing the hard drive on that one too. Talk about bad luck. I am just glad I have the extended Geek Squad protection plan on both computers.

2 Weeks Ago	#8 (permalink)
TallestBabyEver Regular Donor Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: in IN, out for takeout Age: 20 Posts: 396 Threads: 10 Gallery Uploads: 30 Reputation: 4	had this happen to me TWICE. First time the hard drive crashed under warranty, plus i hadn't had it for that long and most of what i lost i didn't care about. Music was backed up on my home comp. The second time was when my laptop was stolen from my apartment. Hard to back that up. Lost my resume, some "personal" pics (take a wild guess), and some music. All the stuff was password protected so im pretty sure my identity is safe along with my dignity. The worst part was living without decent internet for almost a month. It was a nightmare. I'm still putting things back together after this incident, it still pisses me off to this day. Now i've moved, have my shiney new comp and am posting today.

2 Weeks Ago	#9 (permalink)
Huggies1998 Regular Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Chicago area Posts: 325 Threads: 4 Reputation: 0	I've never experienced a hard drive failure, surprisingly - and I work with 15 year old computers!

2 Weeks Ago	#10 (permalink)
andysetra turtles all the way down Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Canada Age: 24 Posts: 1,456 Threads: 9 Gallery Uploads: 2 Blog Entries: 7 Reputation: 18	This happened to me last June. I (stupidly) had lapsed on making backups and was 7-8 months behind - then my WinXP (C drive died...that was 7-8 months of digital camera pics, other pics and small files - lost. Luckily I keep all my mp3s and media files on separate drives. I now have a Seagate 200gb drive sitting on my shelf that has a bad controller, but presumably good platters that still hold my info... I even tried the freezer trick, but when the drive is hooked up to a computer, said computer takes SO long to boot (xp & linux ... both take a long time) that by the time it's ready, the drive is meltingly hot again... Anyway, good to hear you're back up and running. Life with internet... does such a thing even exist nowadays?