Sigh. Dead Computer Woes

[feng_shui_house]

Brief power outage woke me up a couple days ago. The old mac would not start. Took it to a mac repair place & it's hopeless. SO SO SORRy I haven't been doing regular updates. Lost everything since February. Including passwords- thank heaven ONE of my emails had the new password on here. I don't know what it IS, but I have been able to use it to reset my other email & have got back passwords to a few places so far.


The repair place said they'd take it apart for $200 and tell me what part I needed to find MYSELF, SOMEHOW, with no guarantee it would work after I paid additional money to install it. OR I could have them attempt to save the data, which was gonna be more than $500 up front whether or not any data was salvaged. Um. No. I do not care how valuable you think your time is- I do NOT believe $500 with no guarantee is at all sensible. Over the phone they said $85 non-refundable to diagnose it- which to me means, taking it apart- I did tell him it was totally dead and would not start, so he KNEW the diagnosis had to involve taking it apart- so suddenly $85 is $200 (and I was told they were giving me a break because it would take 3 hours and should cost $300).

And of course, my old printer and scanner are incompatible with the newer (but still old) iMac. I don't print much, but I wish I could use the scanner. It's past manufacturer's 'legacy' even, so while there are sites that purport to offer drivers, I don't trust them. Free software not from the manufacturer is dangerous.

Located a data retrieval place which guarantees its work, and promises to charge nothing if they can't get my data (they can't get applications back, just data- but if they could just get my images and text, that would be an enormous help.) They also say they'll look at the computer (sounded like 'take it apart') look at, and quote me a price, and if I say 'no' then they'll not charge me anything, and they'll send it (I'm assuming they just mean the drive) back to me for free.

Sounds like the best option I have. Gonna try to taxi there on Monday. If all goes well, they'll call me on Wednesday to say if it's possible & how much they'll charge.

*sigh* I WOULD have signed up for ficathons, but now... well, I mean I DID sign up for them, and now I don't know if I'll be able to do anything.

Comments

[spacefall]

Argh no, what a pain :(

[feng_shui_house]

It is to weep.

[sallymn]

We need them so much these days...

[feng_shui_house]

Me, more than most people. And there's no getting stuff the way I had it, even if I had a fortune.

[jekesta]

Oh god I am so sorry. It's the worst feeling, when suddenly everything is just missing. Glad you were able to get to various passwords, though. That's always a big relief. ::hugs you::

[feng_shui_house]

Thanks! I keep thinking of places I need to check out... oh, heck, PayPal & Amazon.... well maybe I'll wait until I hear from the data retrieval place. If there's a chance they can get the text off I'll have all my old passwords from there.

Despite them saying how trustworthy they are I'd change all the ones I hadn't changed ESPECIALLY the Paypal & Amazon, but at least I'd be able to do it without leaping through hoops.

*hugs*

[miwahni]

"Nuisance" isn't strong enough a word - that's downright painful. I hope everything is up and running again soon.

[feng_shui_house]

Thanks! At best it's gonna be slow. *sigh* It just took me 2 hours to get a workable version of Photoshop Elements And I DO NOT understand ANYTHING about it. It's version 13. I was working with version #1 and maybe #3. Hard to tell now. It was so much better. Probably partly because I'd customized it, but mostly because they seem to have decided that Elements is for illiterates who just want to crop and put titles on photos of the family dog and everything is HUGE pictorial icons.

[watervole]

I strongly recommend sending a copy of your passwords (or mnemonics for them) to a friend you really trust) or (if menemonics that aren't too obvious to anyone except you) backing them up on the web.

[feng_shui_house]

*nods* Currently I'm writing them down on an index card. Once I get the whole collection I may send them to Z. I'm hoping the data retrieval place will be able to get my text & images, with any luck including the document where I wrote down the passwords (which I THOUGHT I'd saved to an external drive, but no). If I can get the old password doc I'll at least KNOW all the places I need to reset, & be able to reset them (the data place swears they're honest & it looks like a well-established, huge place with incentive to stay honest, but if there's a chance someone read that doc I would change the passwords immediately).

[vera_j]

*Sigh with you*
oh damn...and I keep my fingers crossed for you.

[feng_shui_house]

THanks! :^) It's just so depressing that I stupidly put off doing backups.

[vera_j]

It is easy to become careless...
*Hugs*

[feng_shui_house]

I had that computer for SO MANY years with no problems, and backups always took a day, so I kept saying I'll do it as SOON as I finish this current project. Not good.

[blakefancier]

*huggles you lots*

[feng_shui_house]

I need so mANY HUGGS. :^)

[pebblerocker]

D: NOOOOOOO :(