It all began a week ago, when I decided that our desktop computer needed to go to a computer hospital for a little tune up. How was I to know that was the beginning of a week from he__ __! The wonderful computer geeks at our local Staples, completely and utterly destroyed my computer. When I got it back all my photos, documents, programs, everything was gone!!!!!
Have you seen a grown woman sob over a computer monitor? It isn't pretty! It was worse than Oprah's "ugly crying." My mascara melted to my armpits, my face was white as a pair of brand new whitey tighties! Each of my kids called and tried to console me, but the devastation of it all was too much. Every grandchild picture was gone, and some computer geek had my blood on his hands!!!!!
After the initial crying period (that went on way too long) , my survival instincts kicked in. I realized, "Oh, I have Carbonite...everything will be fine, everything will be backed up." I went to bed Tuesday night believing that I could get my stuff restored. I spent a sleepness night tossing and turning and worrying about my photos. How could I have intrusted a computer nerd at Staples with the most important stuff in my life? I'll tell you how it happened. I could not understand a word out of the techs mouth! He had an accent, and when he started flapping his lips with tech talk, I believed he knew what he was doing. I agreed to have them do whatever, but I did remind them that I did not, under any circumstances, want to loose my pictures. Obviously, he didn't understand a word out of my mouth either.
So back to Carbonite. My first call to them was answered by some guy sitting at a computer in India. I spent two hours having him direct me around my computer. Finally we started restore, and I thought I was done. Silly, silly, me! Six restores later, 3 online people, 2 more phone people, and hours upon hours of staring at the computer...and finally some success! The only people who really helped me were two online people with the names of Sonja and Jake. The last guy, Carlos, wanted me to take apart my computer and change a wireless connection to wired. I decided he was NUTS, and got off line with him quickly.
Do you see why I have become a basket case! Every time the computer would start restoring, the computer would loose power or something, and it would shut down. I got up at 1:30 AM, 4:30 AM, and 6:30 AM just to wiggle the mouse and make sure the computer didn't go to sleep ( even though it was set to never go to sleep.) Someone must have forgot to tell my computer this because it still wants to nap all the time.
When I finally got most of my pictures back, I decided to copy them onto a memory stick. This too I thought would be quick and easy. Well, four memory sticks and cards later...I still did not have my 1000 pictures back. So yesterday I went and put an 8 MG memory stick. I was praying that it would work, and it did...kind of.
Thanks to my daughter, who isn't afraid to click in and out of things, we finally got everything copied onto my memory stick, and to my laptop. But, I'm still not done. We are still missing programs. When Larry went to pick up the computer, the tech said he had gotten rid of programs he didn't think we would need. Are you kidding me? How can a computer geek know what programs I don't need? I don't even know what I don't need!
As of tonight, I think I have everything working but two deleted programs. I have managed to get a lot of things working myself. So why did I need a computer geek? I guess to teach me some valuable lessons.
1. Only talk to people who speak English when it comes to computer repairs
2. Don't go to Staples
3. Don't trust Carbonite completely
4. Backup everything somewhere else
5. Put everything in writing so they don't have a memory fade
6. Practice praying...you will need it
Lastly, I do not think I want another computer tech near my machine. With this kind of help...who needs them. I can have a nervous breakdown without them...thank you very much:)
