The Day Mr. Maxtor Ate My Photos…

I have been patient for several weeks now, hoping for a miracle.  Perhaps a miracle is a bit of a dramatization, because this is really not a matter of great importance, but more one of disappointment and aggravation.  However it is referred to, what should have been a very happy and exciting day, turned flat when my editor/computer guru and husband, FD, announced that Mr. Maxtor had gobbled up our data.

Pesky gnats hover about in expanding and converging masses.

More than a month ago, FD purchased his 4-year-old desktop computer from his employer.  Employees at FD’s company get a great discount on the purchase of their work computers, and this particular machine came with huge monitors and an awesome sound system.

My last computer, a laptop, was disappointing.  Early on, the audio refused to work correctly and the computer had a slow processor, so everything took forever to open and run.  Since I am not a patient person most of the time, I continually complained about it.  Now, I did not have a throw-down mind you (I am NOT a tantrum-thrower – really, I swear!), but I did sometimes spout off (yell and scream) and walk (stomp) away from the computer vowing not to write anymore.  I lost my desire to look at video on the computer, since half the time it wouldn’t load, and the sound was choppy or non-existent.

FD worked to fix the issues numerous times, even completely reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling all my software on one occasion.  His efforts would help for a while, but then the laptop would just go back to its sluggish and wayward ways. So lately, I have rebelled the computer and, consequently, my writing.  I just did not have the gumption required to deal with my ill friend.  So, as is typical for me under these conditions, I set out to work like the devil outdoors – my coping “skill” for dealing with adversity in my life.

Unfortunately, that tactic did not work very effectively.  I might as well admit, the whole time I was sweating and toiling out in the heat, I was thinking about and formulating blog posts.  I would run into the house and grab my camera when a photo presented itself.  I sat on the mower and thought about posts I could compose based on my photos.  Some were photos I had taken this spring of Daisy deer, the chickens, planting the gardens, the day we brought our new tractor home, and more wildlife that I had managed to photograph… especially the lactating does visiting our feeders, juvenile squirrels, and fledgling birds.  Thinking of these photos, I created stories in my mind while I worked outdoors.

These beastly grubs do damage in my gardens year-around!

When FD announced his new work computer had arrived and he would be bringing home the used, but awesome, old work computer, I was more than elated!  At last I would have a decent machine to utilize!

When FD brought my new (old) computer home, he hooked it up, loaded my programs and worked all evening to get everything the way I like it.  I was in the kitchen when I heard the sound system ROCK THE HOUSE DOWN!  Well, alright… maybe it rocked the computer room down, but this baby was cranking!  The sound was awesome and the monitors were huge!  I could feel being “spoiled” coming on.  This computer was just too good to be true!

A short time later, I noticed my computer guru seemed troubled.  He’s a serious guy when he is working at a project, but now he seemed a little too serious.  I was not about to bother him while he worked, but I was curious why he was now resorting to slapping Mr. Maxtor, our external hard drive, around.  He seemed to be whacking it fairly hard with his hands and was muttering… this wasn’t sounding good.  He looked at me and said, “I can’t get the external drive to power up”.  I knew the importance of this statement.  My photos!!  That is where all of our photos were stored!  Not being a techy person, and having full faith in my computer guru and the Universe, I believed he would soon get it up and running some how, some way.  I whisked away to the kitchen and said a positive prayer.  I just knew everything would be fine.  This was just a little glitch.

This is how irritated I must look when confronted with an unpleasant happening in the day. I daresay this woodland lizard is getting aggravated at me following his every move!

Days later, after trying a number of do-it-yourself “cures”, it became painfully obvious the wretched Maxtor hard drive could not be resuscitated.  FD did not feel the data had been lost or corrupted, but we would need to locate a data recovery expert to help extract the data from the external hard drive, which was our backup media.  Every bit of data since 2009 was sitting in the belly of Mr. Maxtor.  Fortunately, information prior to 2009 is still available on another backup, but all of my recent photography was now unavailable. We would likely have to pay someone major money to retrieve precious photos that could never be replaced.

I often find the yellow foxtail to be an irritating weed I do not welcome in my gardens or flowerbeds, but in the woodlands, backlit by evening sun, I find it to be rather beautiful.

If the data can be retrieved, and the fee for doing so is not terribly outlandish, then we will proceed.  But if it is too costly, I will just have to accept the loss.  I have not cried a river of tears over this, as it is just data.  And the funny thing is, the loss of past correspondence and family photos does not bother me near as much as the loss of my wildlife photography.  Those photographs were hard-won, and capturing them left me with feelings of elation and a giddiness I have only felt with nature.  I know if they are gone for good, I will still have the memory… the feeling and bond with nature is still there.  And I will continue to be out there with my camera, formulating blog posts as I sit for hours waiting for just the right photo opportunity.  After all, the most memorable and extraordinary experiences are often the ones that are acquired through great effort.  These moments are held in a place deep within us; in our spirits… in our souls – eternal hard drives that will never fail us.

© Day by Day the Farm Girl Way…