The Tail of The Lost Data and the Personal Recovery Process

So as I'm sure you've gathered by now, my hard drive died on me a few weeks ago.  It was really a traumatic experience because I used the computer 15 minutes before and was just coming back to google something but when I opened it nothing happened.  After several restarts all I was getting was blank screen, but I was in the middle of prepping for a BBQ the next day so I decided that there was no point in freaking out until after that event was over.  

Sunday after an awesome BBQ, I headed to a friends house to see if he might be able to work some magic on my computer but sadly his magic had apparently run out for the night so he did the next best thing which was to make me an appointment at the Genius Bar in the Apple store for Monday afternoon.

So I set out on Monday to take it to the store, and as sad as the news that I received was, the experience was just comical enough that I survived the diagnosis, which was that I needed a new hard drive.  After the Genius did a few things to see if he could pull my hard drive up on another computer he pulled out the big guns; which was a stethoscope so he could listen to my hard drive.  He said; "I know this looks a bit funny. . . " and I told him no, it was great and it made the diagnosis all the more bearable.  The whole time I was wishing I could take his picture so I could document the moment.  So the diagnosis was the there are good noises and bad noises that hard drives make and mine was not making good noises.  He explained that it was like two records in the hard drive and instead of the needle starting at the beginning and reading the information mine was skipping to the end.  A problem that could not be fixed in the store.  The other problem was that I couldn't get a new hard drive until I could give them the old one.

I left the store once again kicking myself for not backing my data up over the past year while I've had this computer and a list of numbers to call for data recovery.  So Tuesday I called the first number on the list, which was also going to be the cheapest option and their quote was a free analysis of the problem and a start cost of $299.  Holy crap, I'm not going to pay that much if I don't have to. . . 

The next 5-7 days were spent without a computer still and toiling over how much data I really lost and if it was worth the money.  After talking it out with the friend mentioned previously, I made the firm decision that I have enough of my data in other places and I couldn't justify the expense for a minimal amount of loss (he was pushing for me to pay the money).  

So the next day was Monday again, and I made the trek down to the Apple store once again to hand over my lost data forever (forgot to mention that my hard drive crashed just a week and a half before the 1 year warranty expired so that was a blessing, and I went ahead and bought the extended warranty the previous week I was in the store.)  I met with another Genius who told me it would take a few days to get it all ready to go; to which I said "Aren't you just going to exchange hard drives?"  He said we could do that if I wanted to format the drive myself; to which I said; "No".  So I explained that I was headed out of town for a week on Wednesday and he told me he's try to get it done as fast as possible.  I left the store computer-less which was a really weird and a bit unnerving of a feeling, resolved that this whole process was happening for some reason and that in the end I'd have a working computer again.  I headed back home; and was at the AT&T store a half hour later when I got a call that my computer was ready . . . wait wasn't it going to be a few days.  I was very excited to have my computer working again, but in an annoying sort of way because . . . do you know the price of gas these days???

So that's my sage of the lost data and the personal recovery process.  I don't know if I would have lived through the whole experience if it hadn't been for the first Genius and his stethoscope!  Sorry for no pictures, I didn't have the nerve to ask if I could take one! Oh, and how could I forget, the Genius's at the Apple store wear shirts that say . . . Not all heroes wear capes!  How great is that; it was also a highlight of the experience!