Anyone who knows me expects to see me sporting my backpack gear bag hanging on my right shoulder. I carry tons of tech in that bag whether I need it on a daily basis or not. The backbone of that backpack has been my 13″ MacBook Pro. The laptop was my dream computer, and it was basically an extension of myself. Making movies, editing photos, and writing posts; all flowed from my laptop like a master magician wowing a captivated crowd. In fact, that MacBook even made trips with me to the farm and hunting. That magic came to a horrible end this weekend when my MacBook Pro went kaput!
The computer had been acting like it was not feeling well lately, but I was able to complete all of my tasks without issue. As I was breaking down opponent football video Saturday, the machine felt unusually warm. When I tried to shut the laptop down, it locked up, and the screen turned a baby blue shade a few times and it went blank. I immediately sent the bat signal out to Dan knowing he would be the only person I knew who could help me revive it. Long story short, after a lot of try this and do that he told me the phrase I did not want to hear …”I think you might be screwed.” My friend … errr my MacBook was no longer going to be following me!
If losing my nicest and only mobile computer was not enough, the realization that I did not have a backup made my stomach turn. That is right, scream at me and throw rocks now, but I had no backup and no money to replace my laptop. There I sat with a few hours of work left to do, and all I could think about was how would I do my football work or write posts for Gear Diary. Since that terrible day, I have taken my hard drive out and recovered my files. My Mac Mini at home is much older, not set up like the MacBook, and it has to sit on a desk; my 1st gen iPad is not supported anymore, and is probably living on borrowed time. My daily work has not been easy, and I feel like all I do is roam around looking for a spare machine to use.
Sure, there are worse problems around the world, but this event has greatly altered my daily workflow in a negative manner. I am still learning the best way to complete my tasks slowly, but if there is anything I can impress upon the readers with my horrible experience, it is to back up and do it often.
I consider myself lucky actually since I was able to get the pics, videos and precious files from the laptop despite losing the entire machine. I may not ever have another setup that sweet, but I will find a way to get things done. One thing I know is that there will be backups of everything I do from now on.
Hopefully reading this has inspired you. Stop what you are doing and backup your machines, tablets and phones!