Computers have given us the ability to automate so many things. They allow us to type, edit, and retype at the touch of a few buttons. We can edit entire novels in days instead of painstakingly copying them letter by letter for months or years at a time.

So when your computer decides it doesn’t want to work anymore…. ARG!

My computer has been having issues for a while. The USB plug has been acting up, deciding not to work now and then for no reason that I can tell. Usually I can trouble shoot through it, repair, clean the dust out, and get the thing limping along again for a while.

What’s worse is I am not sure what is failing. Is it a software or a hardware issue? Do i have a virus that is eating away at some components? Do I just need to reformat and boot again? Or do I need to start replacing parts. USB’s are attached to the mother board so that would be a lot of parts.

I’ve known for a while that my computer needed to be upgraded, at least, and that it probably needed a good cleaning. I even bought a new terabyte hard drive so I could save all my data. I just hadn’t gotten around to installing it. So… I have a blank terabyte drive, and a half full 300 gig drive, neither of which I can easily access at the moment. I mean they turn on, but my mouse is USB, so moving files around without a mouse is difficult at best since I don’t know all the short cuts.

On the plus side, I have a drop pox with all my writing on it. I can access that through my lap top (and old lap top that has a little touch screen mouse, and shouldn’t be used for games, so it’s less distracting when I write.) but all my family photos, video, and art work is still trapped on the old drive till I get it out.

At least I know that the hard drive isn’t corrupted. The data is still there, just hard to get to.

Lessons… Back up your files, and not just one a computer. Burn them on a disk, drop them in your email, use DROPBOX! Seriously, Dropbox is invaluable. In fact, if you don’t yet have a Dropbox, go here and set one up. they give you free space. It’s not a lot, but it is enough to save the most important data in case something happens.

As for me… I’m off to work on my novel some more with the little lap top. So glad I have that otherwise I’d be scrambling to get the PC fixed right now.