Photography, Technology and the Hard Drive

“Hard drives fail 100% of the time,” said the Apple Genius. 

The fact that I was at the Genius Bar in an Apple store means that something occurred to get me there. Ah, yes, the white screen of death this time. The day before I had merely hit the power button in anticipation of viewing my favorite photo of the Left Mitten rock at Monument Valley. Nope. A little swirling, some whirring sounds and an Apple icon. I was proud of myself for remaining calm. I mean, I had a back-up...from a year ago. 

Sure, sure, we’re all busy. I have no excuses and I don’t mean to be dramatic (well, just a little). I absolutely DO want to light a little fire under you, raise your blood pressure some, or (this really hits home for moms, I find) pass some guilt over. Go run a backup of your hard drives now.

         Go ahead...I’ll wait.

That was my second MacBook hard drive crash. The first one really did damage...and it even warned me! Something to the effect of “your memory is becoming full.” Well, yes, it was ridiculously full because - to my great enjoyment! - I had been editing home movies in iMovie, creating slide shows and books, and generally having a grand ‘ol time with my MacToy. Did you know that when you create a file in iMovie and want to burn it on a DVD it has to make a complete copy of itself first? Oh, and video files are HUGE to begin with. My little 111 GB hard drive didn’t stand a chance. I do feel thankful that I still have all the home movies on the original video tapes from the camcorder. I also have other copies of all the photos from our D.C. vacation that are now trapped on that tiny metal rectangle. I do NOT have my nicely edited (text! fade-ins and -outs!) home movies or the first photo book I had completed (but not ordered) in iPhoto of said vacation. 

While I’m here, I must mention that the very FIRST hard drive fail occurred on my Dell desktop computer in 2007. COD seemed to be a static shock or some odd electrical short - you can actually see little fried areas of the hard drive. The Geek Squad used some extreme measures (putting in a freezer overnight), but could never find a heartbeat on that one. To this day, I am blissfully, purposefully, ignorant of what I lost.

I’ll leave you with one piece of good news...if you use your iTunes account to buy and download all your fun stuff..you won’t lose it. Just log in and download that INXS Rockin’ the Royals album all over again. If you use iCloud, your calendar and contacts are safe. This is the silver lining. It’s all I got, really. I now have an external hard drive back-up for my MacBook and two (one with old files) for my desktop. I have just subscribed to SmugMug and plan to diligently and systematically get my photos all safe and cozy up in digital nirvana. And with their app, I can view any photo uploaded on my “mobile device.” Photo Galleries

Are you still here? Go. GO! Run your backups and then get another backup. Remember, they fail 100% of the time - and you never know when it’s time.