I think my undying love for Apple has started, well, dying. My powerbook's HD crashed almost 2 years ago. I had plenty of warning, but didn't really know what it was warning me *about* until it simply refused to turn on one day. After lots of research, I found a program that recovered ALL of my data. Over seven years of pictures, movies, emails, files... all accounted for. My relief was immeasurable.

I started backing my data up on an external drive. A few months ago, I decided to get a new Macbook. Because it was a brand new computer, I became pretty lax in backing things up.

I was in the middle of organizing/naming movies of my son when it just simply STOPPED. It crashed with zero warning, and it crashed very hard. It's completely unrecoverable. Almost 3 months of movies and photos of him: clapping, giggling, playing, learning to walk... just gone.

I have a website for him to share with the family back home, and so I have a decent number of low resolution pictures and movies from that. But the originals are toast. I had been planning on getting prints made of some of those photos and now they're gone. My husband worked all day yesterday trying to get the drive to show up and it's simply gone.

I'm so sad and angry. I'm mad at myself for not backing that stuff up sooner, but I'm also mad because when my husband searched for ideas of what to do, he came across all kinds of sites where people were saying that their Macbooks were crashing around the 3 month mark!!! I wish I had known!!

This post's purpose is 3-fold. One - here's a PSA - If you have data that you cherish on your computer, buy an external drive and back it up TODAY. Do it regularly after that, no matter how busy you are.

Two - I just wanted to vent. I have been a die-hard Apple fan for over 7 years. My husband has had numerous PC's and I have had numerous macs. My husband's PC's have NEVER crashed. But my mac drives have crashed twice now. I've gotten friends to convert to macs, and I've owned several myself. I don't even feel like I can recommend them anymore.

Three - if anyone at all has heard of a miracle program that will magically recover my data, I will name my next child after you.

I'm grateful for my son's website, without which I would have nothing left at all. I'm grateful that only 3 months worth of photos/movies are lost. (AND my updated resume - took me HOURS to work on that. GONE!!! ARGH!)

I have learned my lesson. Thanks for reading my vent.

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~Jo RN
Endocrinology/Infertility
formally Internal Med Hospital nurse.
http://jodaya.blogspot.com/

I'm really sorry to hear about your Macbook, as Jodi says can you take it somewhere?

That kind of thing does happen to PCs cos my own Dell laptop just died right in the middle of my dissertation for my masters. I lost several holidays and Christmas's worth of photos as I hadn't backed up. Thinking of that now, I am falling into the same trap; something else to add to my 'to do' list!

Geena~

I know exactly what you are going through and my stomach is sick for you. It's that overwhelming feeling of hopelessness that you could have and should have but didn't. Ugggghh.

I've had my share of computer problems and lost some things I'll never get back again. Now I do things different. I buy jump drives for about $40.00 per 4 GB and I put my stuff on their directly. Personal stuff that I really care about....like my picture, my movies, etc. I do that until I can format everything the way I like it and then burn them onto CD's. After I burn the CD, I erase the jump drive and it's clean to use another day.

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I'm really sorry about what happened. Write a letter to Steven Job's office. I did a few years ago and they fixed my very expensive problem for free. Scream, yell, stomp, and let them know how upset you are about what happened. This sucks!

I entirely agree with Mother Jones, sometimes you have to go to the top to get anything done.

The funny thing is... I DID write a letter. I just haven't printed it out yet to send.

I was SO MAD that I had to write something down. I guess I felt better and intended on not sending it.

But maybe I will. What happened with your situation, MJ?

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Holy cow! I've been a MAC user for over 13 years now and I've had every single one to come on the market. I'm not kidding - at one point we had FIVE different MACs in the house. I'm working on a MacBookPro as we speak, six months and no issues.

Every single PC that my daughter (a non-MAC user) has had has crashed.

Now, in all fairness, it is safe to say that it's not IF a hard drive will crash, it is WHEN. So back up is necessary whether it's a MAC or a PC.

But...Geena, have you talked to Apple customer service or gone the the Genius Bar at an Apple store? That should not have happened.

When the MacBooks first came out there were some issues, but Apple will replace that computer - they have always been more than willing to help us deal with any issues.

Trust me, the MAC crash was a fluke. Get a MacBookPro and do not go over the the PC dark side!!!!!!!!!

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The ER is the only place where you are rewarded for efficiency by getting more patients!

Kim
http://www.emergiblog.com

Mother Jones is not kidding - call Steve Jobs' office directly. My son bought a MAC only to have a special start the next day - buy a mac get a free iPod. He called and was told "Steve said to send you the iPod!".

I'm telling you, Apple is really the way to go! And if Steve Jobs were single (and if I were single) I'd grab him up so fast!

(Besides, any company that would put Jeff Goldblum in their commercials like they did a few years ago is alright with me!

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The ER is the only place where you are rewarded for efficiency by getting more patients!

Kim
http://www.emergiblog.com

Definitely not trying to pull you to the darkside, but the hard drive crashes are definitely not a fluke. It's a well-known problem here recently with Macs. And a few months ago, new Macbooks had a problem with a problem labeled RSS.