DATA DUMP

For the past 10 years or so I have had a laptop computer, which I have used (inter alia) to write this blog. My children have long told me that it was a useless piece of outdated stone-age rubbish, and I was finally getting around to thinking about buying a new one, which was more suitable for my super-fast 30/30 optic fibre connection. However, as of yesterday morning, I had not made said purchase. Even worse, I had not made a back-up of the hard drive on the laptop, which I know I should have done.

Yesterday morning, I experienced a data dump, where everything shut down. My neighbour is an IT-man, so I went round to his house to see if he could save the hard disk, not for the computer as such but for the data (pictures, E-Mail addresses, some important templates etc). He could not. He also told me rather brutally that there are two types of men in the world, who own laptops; those who make back-ups of the hard disk and those who weep. Well, I didn't weep; but I wasn't a particularly happy bunny last night.

However, he also gave me the name of a company in the nearby town, that specialises in sorting out the problems of IT-idiots like me. So I took my laptop down there this afternoon, and gave it to them to have a go. They didn't look particularly fazed , and said that it was a rare case indeed where they couldn't retrieve the data from a damaged hard disk. So perhaps I'll be able to get my blog pictures back after all.

And in case you're wondering, I am writing this from the computer at the local cinema. We normally use it to run some of the new digital equipment, but it will have to do until I get my new laptop. One thing I do know after using it a couple of times; my children were right.

Walter Blotscher