Last week something tragic happened… I had been doing very long hours plugging away at my final semester assignments, running my beloved computer non-stop.
Next minute… the screen went blank.
That was strange; I pressed the start button to reboot it.
Grey screen.
I rebooted again.
Grey screen.
In a panic I called Apple; I was on the phone for over an hour, many combinations of keys were ‘long-held’ in an attempt to resuscitate the beast, but it was to no avail…
My beautiful MacBook Pro was dead.
The most tragic (and foolish) part about this whole tale is that I hadn’t backed it up in…. well…. ever.
So today, I am offering a public service announcement to my fellow Charlie pals – BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER!
I certainly knew I was supposed to, but I was lazy and too stingy to buy an external hard-drive. That $140 could have saved me a world of regret last week – EVERY assessment I’ve ever done at uni is now gone. Sure I’m about to graduate and probably won’t need them again, but it’s still a bit tragic to have years of hard work disappear into thin air.
What options are there for an internal computer-less student?
With only a few weeks left of uni until graduation, and not very much money in the bank, I really do not want to fork out over $1000 for a new computer, so I’ve found some solutions:
- The library – they’ve got super fast desktop Mac’s (and PC’s if you’re that way inclined) which have an abundance of programs, including Photoshop – all for free!
- For when I feel like working at home, I’ve taken to borrowing a computer from the library loans desk. They offer shiny new Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablets (with a keyboard) for four-hour loans during the daytime, and overnight if you borrow them within an hour of the library closing (but they need to be returned first thing in the morning, or you’ll get hit with a fine)
- The classic notebook and pen – I’ve been taking these to class instead of my MacBook (RIP), which is actually proving to be a much better option for me because there’s no way I can sneakily check Facebook or Etsy
So how do you back things up?
Well, after doing a quick Google search, it turns out that backing up your devices is ridiculously easy (#regrets). The clearest step-by-step I found for Mac, Windows, IPad, and Galaxy Tab is provided by good ol’ WikiHow; I encourage each and everyone of you to learn from my mistakes, have a read and do it – NOW!
