by
Mark Ollig
Alright, what’s the
worst thing that can happen to someone who is habitually attached to their
computer every day?
Take away their
computer and find out.
Some years back,
yours truly went through the traumatic experience of having the hard disk drive
on his laptop computer crash.
It was a Friday
morning; I sat down in front of my computer, turned on the monitor, and hit the
return key, which I normally do to get the computer’s attention.
This time nothing
happened.
“What’s going on
with my computer?” I shouted.
“Well, what did you
expect?” My oldest son tersely said to me. “You’ve left it turned on for the
last two years.”
I hesitated in my
reply, as the gravity of his sentence sunk in. He was right.
Come to think about
it, I would turn off the monitor screen – but rarely turned off power to the
computer itself. It was always on.
I had lulled myself
into a false sense of security, thinking my computer was invulnerable, as long
as the fans inside of it kept the components cooled.
On the bright side,
I had made backups of my photos and word documents; the not-so-bright side is
the backups were made six months ago, and did not include the most recent
additions.
I ended up taking
the laptop to a popular computer store, where the technician performed a
diagnostic check.
It was confirmed.
The computer’s hard drive was damaged beyond repair, and needed to be replaced.
I shook my head,
and thought about the files on the hard drive, and then recalled those haunting
words, “Well, what did you expect? You’ve left it turned on for the last two
years.”
The computer tech
told me the hard drive may have been damaged from an electrical spike, or it
just wore out from the constant spinning of the drive’s platters.
I had come to
believe it was best for a computer to be left on most of the time, than it
would be having its power being repeatedly turned off and on.
There was hope.
The files I had not
backed up may be retrievable using a “hard disk file recovery” diagnostic
program.
They would run the
recovery program, and contact me with the results.
There was nothing
else for me to do there, so I drove back home to wait for their call.
As the weekend
approached, I realized I might be facing it without my computer.
I was now
“de-computerized” and going through severe “where’s my computer and Internet?”
withdrawal symptoms.
There I was,
sitting at my desk dumbfounded, staring at the spot where my computer should
be.
Instead, I saw a
few scattered USB cables, a dusty printer, an unplugged display screen, a
mouse, and a wireless keyboard silently staring back at me.
Your humble
columnist was lost without his computer.
I gazed out the
window of my apartment and noticed the green leaves of some maple trees swaying
in a gentle breeze against a blue sky.
A few robins could
be heard softly tweeting, and I saw what my mind’s eye fashioned out to be a
rabbit’s face in one of the clouds.
A sense of
serenity, calmness, and even a wave of contentment replaced the anxiety I was
feeling.
“Gosh, this is kind
of peaceful,” I thought.
In this moment of
tranquil solitude and momentary self-awareness, I admitted to myself that I was
spending too much time on the computer.
I was browsing
through never-ending web sites, and watching too many YouTube videos.
So, instead of
brooding about it, I decided to go for a walk outside.
Stopping at a local
coffee establishment, I conversed with the barista as she poured some Columbian
French roast coffee into a cup.
Sitting down at a
table, I could not help but notice the young folks seated at other tables,
staring at their laptop computer screens, while hurriedly typing.
I reached for the
newspaper (yes, printed paper media) and flipped through several pages, while
occasionally looking out the window onto the patio where other folks were
immersed with their computers.
Returning home, I
sat down at the desk.
Taking pen and
paper, I wrote some words regarding “life without my computer.”
“This might make an
interesting column,” I mused.
This story ends
with the installation of a new 160GB hard disk drive to replace the damaged one
in my laptop.
The operating
system and other software programs were successfully re-loaded with no
problems.
More good news: the
tech geeks at the computer store were able to recover the files I had not
backed up from the damaged hard drive.
The lessons learned
here is we need to back up our files, use the computer’s sleep and hibernate
modes, and properly shut down the computer when not using it for a lengthy
period.
Having just
finished writing this column, it seems to me to be a good time to step away
from the computer, and go outside for a relaxing walk.
