• crazy stuff,  Shop Talk

    Fine Pickle

    Hot Mess

    Hi.

    Here I am watching paint dry while my laptop backs-up 150 gigs of data onto it’s brand new hard drive. A hundred and fifty GIGS. Remember when a mega bite was a big deal? Le sigh.

    I don’t even know what to say. I thought I’d be up and running in a week. It’s looking more like a month. I’m praying that if I back-up my photos later, I can carve it back down to a week or two. I don’t know anymore. I hate to get my hopes up.

    Everything is upside down. I’m sure there is a lesson in this and I have a hunch what it is but it’s not making the growing pains any better.

    When Apple reinstalled my new hard drive they renamed my username and now Carbonite doesn’t know where to put all my files. I thought I could just direct Carbonite to the new username but it doesn’t look like that is working.

    There are a gabzillion files all over my desktop and stacking by the minute. I don’t know what to do. When it first started happening I cancelled the back-up and had a Carbonite employee walk me through the process. They didn’t know why it was writing to the desktop either but we restarted it anyway, double-checking all the locations directions. They advised me not to change my Apple username. I’m not sure if they were right. But who am I to say? I’m really not a tech head.

    Half an hour into the second restore the files started stacking on my desktop again.

    At this point I’m just cutting my losses. We are a full 24 hours into the back-up and I don’t want to start over again. I’ll just be the filing queen for a week or two. That’s better than sitting here watching a scroll bar creep across my screen at speeds I can’t even see.

    Watching paint dry.

    I keep taking screen shots so I can compare them hourly and see that indeed files are moving byte by byte. But some files are bigger than others and the numbers don’t change for really long periods of time. When I asked the Carbonite employee how I could tell if the back-up was stuck or just crunching a big file, she said to just watch it for a day or two.

    A DAY OR TWO? Oh my goodness. I remember when I thought wasting twenty minutes was a big deal. Now I have to sit here and wait a day or two to see if the back-up is possibly stuck or not. I’m thinking the lesson here is:

    P A T I E N C E

    I’m not so sure I’m a fan of Carbonite anymore. I’m so thankful I backed up but I’m thinking my next back-up will be on an external hard drive where I can control things.

    So that’s the news. I know. Boring and complainy. I’m sorry. I think in a day or two I’ll have a better attitude and move on to documenting all the cute outfits Bug wears or I don’t know, something…

  • 15 minute posts,  BIG news

    Here’s a Thrilling Story

    Something is missing. My computer! Hard drive failure. No laptop for 3-5 days!!! Forced vacation.

    I’m typing this on my iPad and it’s so weird and small. Better than one-finger pecking on my phone but challenging none the less. So why am I doing this? Because my laptop died!! Complete and utter hard drive failure!

    You’ll notice there is no computer at my desk where I work. That’s because it’s gone!! And, yes, I am going through withdrawals.

    Don’t worry though, there is a somewhat happy ending to this story. Remember when you guys chastised me for not having a backup plan for my whole life/career that is stored on my laptop? (Imagine that post linked here.) Well, I listened to you! I have AppleCare and Carbonite and I think in 3-5 days I will have a new hard drive and will begin downloading all my lost work back onto my computer’s spanking new hard drive! So thank God I listened to you and that I have such kind and responsible commenters who talked sense into me!! You have saved me!!!!

    It’s probably too soon to celebrate but I am optimistic that I’ll be back in business by next week. In the meantime? FORCED VACATION!!

    Or maybe some sketching, mini-blind cleaning, sewing, receipt-adding-up for taxes etc…etc… I think this hiccup was just what the doctor ordered.

    If you need me, call me. Though I am checking email obsessively on my phone of course. I can’t be completely unplugged.

    p.s. Go back-up your hard drive.