It took 7+ hours, but we’ve retrieved almost everything on the
computer. I say “we,” but I had little-to-nothing to do with it. My computer
guy, Jack, taking over and working remotely, went into places in the computer I
didn’t know existed. There’s something
almost surreal about watching the cursor flicking around the screen while you
sit there idle.
The main thing I was looking for was a database with a mailing list I
had manicured for a decade or more but which had suddenly disappeared. Of course it
was from something I did; files don’t literally disappear without some input.
Trying to type faster than I really can I probably hit some delete function
without realizing.
Probably everyone who works a computer has experienced that feeling
that comes a nanosecond after you’ve done it -- “No, I didn’t just do that, did
I, but deep down I know I did.” If you haven’t felt it, I would say you’ve
missed an emotion that rivals, in depth and profundity, what you felt the time
you discovered the spinach on your tooth after delivering the valedictory
address. The second thing I would say is, “If you haven’t, you will.”
We recovered almost everything, but through a peculiarity of the
“Restore” function of Windows I now have two copies of it. Occasionally I had
backed up a file manually (something I intend to do more of from here on) and
in those cases I have four copies. If there’s a way to delete the extra copies
all at once I don’t know it, so I have to plow through deleting them one at a
time. It’s going to take weeks.
Still, I can’t complain. The database shows some peculiarities I don’t
remember from before, but the list is there. I’ve made three copies of it and
pulled another onto a removeable drive. I should be safe. Like I thought last
time.
