Left Hanging...

I just recently had that horrible thing you hope never happens to you (in the world of computers that is) happen to me. The hard drive on my lap top broke. What is the hard drive? I have gotten this question from some friends, so I thought I would clarify; it is the place where ALL your information is stored.

I, fortunately, do backups regularly and a hard drive image monthly, so I was not too panicked. The computer was still under warranty so they immediately sent out a new hard drive. Well, the warranty only covers, of course, the hardware, so everything on it was "not their problem." Nothing from this company in way of support for the less than 2 years worth of material I had acquired onto this storage unit. Let me tell you that I had backups and an image of the hard drive AND I legally purchased ALL of the software on my computer and I am now on day 3 of working on restoring my computer.

I earn money working on my computer. I volunteer, using the computer, and I stay connected to my family through the computer. I have purchased and downloaded numerous amounts of information to my computer over the last 23 months. Yet, the hardware company sent me a completely blank hard drive and left me hanging.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones because I was, somewhat, prepared for such a debacle, but it has not lessened the amount of time and energy I have had to spend trying to get back to some semblance of where I was before. I thought... what do people do that do not know anything about computers? What would those friends of mine do that asked me what a hard drive was? I suppose my friends would ask me for help and I would give it to them but what about the others?

PLEASE, do back-ups of all  your information. Don't know how? Ask someone, do some research to find out. I recommend getting an external hard drive (that's what I have), most come with software to do regular backups. Look into whether or not your version of Windows has a hard drive image back up tool. I have the Business Version of Windows Vista and I have it, but I don't think it comes with the Home Version of Windows Vista.

I realize, too, as I read over this material, that even what little "technical" speak I have used, it is probably confusing to lots of folks out there. Yikes! Don't get left hanging. Take a class or find out now what you can do to really have a basic understanding of your computer. You will save yourself a lot of potential headaches and/or money in the future.