Recovering Lost Writing Files

Posted by Sarah Turner Apr 29, 2008

I didn't know I was addicted to my laptop until it died. I thought I was pretty comfortable writing wherever, whenever. Doing rough drafts on scraps of paper, writing in my journal. Now I see that my laptop is the center of everything writing: it stores all my drafts, the lists of submissions I currently have out, my cv, my photos.

And what about my internet favourites? All those writing sites I've researched and favourited so I can refer back to them? My long list of possible places for submission?

I even miss my desktop image. Sigh.

The crash - of course - occurred just three months past the end of the warranty. The guy in technical services laughed sort of sheepishly, and said, "Yeah, that happens a lot." What?

Then he told me it would cost at least $400 to fix the problem, so I might as well just buy a new one.

Which is what I've done. I bought the cheapest one I could find, convinced it will also crash just past the warranty. After phoning every repair shop in town it seemed like the best idea.

Now the new laptop sits on my desk, and I sit glaring at it. It is not yet familiar: everything looks wrong. It will take a long time to feel like this computer is home. Next step: copy over all the back up files I created.

Then just start writing again.