Did I piss off some elder God?

[sagesaria]

Seriously, I've gone through more fucking laptops than I've gone through SHOES.

My very first laptop, harddrive exploded on me at Faerie Fest. Got the harddrive replaced, Irena spilled mocha on it, had to get it replaced.

Replacement laptop, lasted about a year then started having battery issues. Then it had space issues. Then the fan died.

Netbook, barely a few months in and the touchpad is wonky, and now it's ridiculously slow, and now I think ITS fan is busted.

Now that middle laptop is completely dead. The harddrive busted. I don't know how badly, there's nobody techy awake to tell me or fix it.

This wouldn't be as big a deal if I didn't have TWO REALLY FUCKING IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS on that harddrive. Two documents that if I can't get back I will now have to completely redo and may lose quality and time that I really can't stand to use.

FUCK.

Three laptops. Three. Fucking. Laptops. In the span of about four years. Along with at least two desktop computers. All gone.

WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING WRONG?! As far as I can tell I'm doing NOTHING different from people whose computers are far older. Seriously, why do I have such bad fucking luck when it comes to technology? Can something technology-wise PLEASE, for the love of God, LAST LONGER THAN A FUCKING YEAR?!

Comments

[rawr-indie.livejournal.com]

This is why I gave up on PC's. They constantly break when you need them most and not to mention the viruses!

I think the fact you've gone through this many PC's should be evidence enough to get a mac. I've never had any problems with mine and I've had it 3 years. I don't have to run anti-virus software because it doesn't get viruses and it's the same speed now as it was when I bought it. Plus, if you're worried about Windows programmes, you can always install Windows (although I wouldn't recommend it). Most things you would need to use are on Mac or have Mac alternatives.

I used a PC for such a long time that I got fed up with them once I had a taste of what a Mac could do at College. Now I'd never go back. No more lost documents!

[sagesaria.livejournal.com]

I understand that you're trying to help me, but I've already decided that I don't like Macs and I get a little twitchy when "get a Mac" is the answer :-/

[luke-atmey.livejournal.com]

I cringe when people tell me to get a Mac, too. Mind you, they're not as bad as you'd think. It's just if you like doing your PC-gaming then it'd suck so badly.

As for important documents, that's why I invested in a flashdrive ^^ Got a 2GB like, three years ago for $20 (for that I could probably get something like 16GB now *grumble*) and I saved all of my schoolwork on that as well as my harddrive in case something really bad DID happen.

[sagesaria.livejournal.com]

I like PC gaming and having two mouse buttons. Plus Mac interfaces confuse the hell out of me :P

I actually do have a flashdrive somewhere....I'm just too oblivious to think to use it ._.

[maugorn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those "just get a Mac" or "Just install Linux" advices aren't really helpful or practical. But they do point to a trend of your problems not being isolated to you. PCs and Windows especially aren't really the most reliable machines in the world.

So, you want some practical advice, and from someone who's had devices destroy hours, days, years of work, trashed archives, etc, I can feel your pain and I *do* have some simple steps to share that will lessen your pain.

The first bit of advice was as valid in the old days of computing as it is now:
backup backup backup. Back up any documents or work that is important to you.
Any work that I do on any machine I own is in it's own (named by me, not Windows) directory. And right now, I have three *mostly* reconciled versions of that directory in my posession: PC, laptop, and thumb drive.
On any given day, I could lose one of these, and while it would be a pain, it would not be a complete loss. Now here's the kicker: If I took the time to reconcile all three locations with each other once a week or so, I would NEVER lose more than a week's worth of stuff.

Also, BIG projects get their own, dedicated, external, hard drive. Once I have the budget, THOSE hard drives will each have a sister drive to which I backup the entire contents on a regular basis. Having them external means that the PC or laptop could explode, and I could go continue my work at a library or a K-Mart, if I had to.

Regularly Backing up to non-volatile media such as CDR is pretty good too, but in my case, impractical for the big drives because they have obscene amounts of audio on them.

So the trick to surviving these storms with your DATA intact, is to make sure that the DATA exists in extra places where it would take two simultaneous catastrophic failures to get you.

Which means:
Backup.

Start with what you can. A good place to start is a decent-sized thumb drive for important work and projects, at least. It won't set you back too far, and they're the kind of item that, pricewise, are easy to ask for as, say, a birthday gift.

[lysystratae.livejournal.com]

I also usually email a copy of the document to myself (generally from my gmail to my yahoo), so there's a copy in my email history as well.

[pockythoughts.livejournal.com]

Any commonalities in the brand of these machines?

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

You have had quite a let of frustration with the notebook computers. So, a few suggestions:

• Back up your important documents to a thumb drive daily.
• Contact the manufacturer to see if you're still under warranty. Dell does wonders if still under warranty.
• Is the drive still seated properly? There's a panel on the side/bottom where you can remove and reinsert the drive. That can sometimes fix drive problems