So it's official — it's not the boot.ini file like I was praying it was. The hard drive ist kaput. If everyone would burn some incense for me or otherwise think good karmic thoughts, I'd be much obliged. It's not so much the indignity of losing the hard drive. I've been a technology professional for too long to take it personally when the hardware craps out. I was even moderately successful at spreading the data and backups around so that mitigates the impact. It's just the timing: project due, the big Kings Dominion Clown Band reunion is this weekend (and everyone's email address is on the dead hard drive!), fully commented pictures of my spring trip to Italy, I'm headed to a conference next week and was going to give my presentation with my laptop, etc., etc. [sniff, sniff]
But I do have much for which to be thankful, to be sure. It's not the end of the semester. I was pretty good about backing up data. I have a good job and my health. Meh.
A valuable lesson here, kids. Back up, back up, back up. Spend the $30-$50 on a 1 gig flash drive and copy the important stuff there — then throw it in a drawer. Spend $100 on a 250 gig USB external hard drive and once a week copy your hard drive to it. Make sure you know where your system CDs are and how to use them. Be sure to take advantage of any built-in backup and restore software that's bundled with your operating system. I know both Macs and PCs have such things...take a moment to use them. There are many things to do to ease the pain...just don't make the mistake of thinking that it can't happen to you!!
</pity party>
