Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Mac Breaks Down, And So Do I

It seems like every other week I have some piece of modern technology failing me. Recently it's been my digital camera, then my cell phone, and this week it appears to be my laptop AGAIN. I can't complain. This laptop has been with me even longer than my children.


My little boy learned to type his name on the computer. A practice which sort of back fired on me when he started telling people his name was "Z I O N space bar L E E".


All 8 of the members of my family (my parents, brothers, and sister in laws) own Macbooks.



Even baby SJ came to love this titanium member of our clan.


The problem began on Monday afternoon when my charger started smoking. I panicked and J tried to perform an immediate emergency operation with a solder gun (because he is an IT super hero). In the mean time the battery on my laptop was running out.

40%...35%

Come to find out, it wasn't the charger, it was the actual computer itself and by this time I am down 15% left of my battery power.

"Do you have everything backed up" J says as he peers at the screen trying everything he can to save the poor creature.

"I think so", but as the words come out I start doubting myself and I begin to sweat.

"Go get your external hard drive!" he shouts.

My heart is pounding as I imagine the thought of loosing everything. I try very hard to make double back ups of all my photos, but there is so much more than that. I start rattling off files to put on the hard drive.

"MY CALENDAR, DOCUMENTS, STICKIES, I DON'T KNOW! I NEED IT ALL! I CAN'T LOOSE THIS COMPUTER." in the meantime the power is quickly fading like the last grains of sand slipping through an hour glass.

10%... 5%

My mind raced to think of every last item and I remember some recent photos of the kids feeding the ducks and I jumped in front of J to locate the folder myself and transfer it to the hard drive.

"I don't think it's going to make it". J said as we watched the race between the folder that was being transferred and the tiny percent of battery power left on the machine, within seconds everything went black. My heart sank.

Reluctantly J took the charger off of his new laptop. He was hesitant because he had seen what my laptop had done to the other charger, but as he plugged it in, the life came back onto the screen. It wasn't a permanent solution, but at least there was a glimmer of hope. It's too soon to really tell the fate of my beloved 17 inch. I am currently using J's old computer to type this blog, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens with all of this.

Am I the only one who has such a tight relationship with my computer? Is there anyone else in danger of passing out if your laptop crashes?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

that was just plain thrilling to read! our beloved laptop is hanging by a thread. the only thing we do with it is watch our netflix instantplay, but i would really hate to see it go. peter got it while in school after we were married so i have all these sentimental memories tied to it. :(

{amy} said...

I've definitely been devastated when my computer & laptops crashed. But after losing all my stuff several times throughout the years, I don't get emotionally attached anymore, & I don't store anything important on my actual computer anymore! I'm so glad to have things like Dropbox & external hard drives!

Momma of The B.M.C. Report said...

This made me laugh. The picture of your family with all the laptops is fabulous! I am the same way with my computer. Why is that? Here's to hoping your beloved 17 inch stays alive! :)

megan @ whatmegansmaking said...

I'm in the process of buying a laptop right now. But if our desktop stopped working? I'd be lost! We really need to invest in a system like carbonite to back everything up. Loved the picture of you guys with your macbooks!

Anonymous said...

Z has changed and grown so much. It's looking back like this that I notice so much.
N.L.W.

Staci said...

Oh Natalie! You make me want to run out right now and buy a hard drive for my mac. I keep putting it off...NO MORE!

@inthekitchenKP said...

OK OK...I will go get a backup right now!! lol
This is a new laptop that I just recently started using (opposed to my work computer)
Doesn't mean I can't lose everything I just transferred. :-)
Good luck! Hope it all works out.

Staceemaree said...

I used to be terrified of losing everything, but after mourning two computers and a laptop, I stopped storing everything. Now, if my house burns down and I lose my gazillion flash drives that store everything, I'm gonna be upset!