Tuesday started off pretty well. I was up early and showered. Kelli, our daughter was bringing her twin boys Eli and Emmett over to me to watch while she went to town to do some errands. She was hoping to be back in time to have lunch with me and she requested Egg Plant Parmesan. When I make that, I go all out and make it completely from scratch including my own sauce. That meant I needed to get to the garden and get things picked before the kids got to my house.
In no time at all, I had three pans of garden goodness ready for the oven to roast into yardsauce.
I was playing with the boys while the yard sauce was roasting. I got up to do a few more things to have lunch ready and BAM….Eli had gotten to my computer. He pulled the table runner I keep under the keyboard and that pulled my whole computer monitor, router, and everything else down onto the floor. It didn’t phase him a single bit. Me, it phased.
Once I saw Eli was okay, I addressed the computer. Fingers crossed it was okay.
Initially, I thought everything was okay. I teasingly wrote a note in the message group I have with the kids. It said, “Eli just wrote himself out of the will.” It was a complete joke. I was just thankful that he or Emmett wasn’t hurt.
Whew…the computer looked okay.
I carefully picked it up. I got it in place. I realized the stand that holds the computer was cracked. Drat. I was able to wedge a bowl under it and that held the side of the computer.
I left the computer because by now the boys were hungry and getting fussy. I fed them and got them to bed for a nap and then sat down to check the computer.
I tried using the computer. It seemed okay but not normal. It was slow. I closed out some programs and then realized the bar on the side of the computer with my shortcuts had disappeared.
BLAH! I’ll just restart it and that typically fixes a lot of things. I got it to shut off. I turned it back on and this is what I got. Blah. I was bummed. My computer really wasn’t that old. I hated to think it had died. I hated more to think of everything I hadn’t backed up and all the things that were lost and gone.
Then I reminded myself how thankful I was that neither of the boys had been hurt.
Kalissa heard the news and came over in hopes of helping me fix it. No luck. She called a local repair guy. We figured I’d have to get a new computer but our hope was that we could salvage a few things. I had LOTS of quilts that were designed and in EQ. I had my taxes and receipts all entered. Was that in the cloud…or on my computer? I kept thinking of thing after thing after thing. Was it now lost? Was it in the cloud? Would I have to repurchase EQ? AHHH!! My brain was hopping from one thought to the next. Maybe he could fix it and everything would be okay…or maybe he could recover info and I’d get a new computer. Who knew?
The guy said Kalissa could drop it off on her way to work that night….and hopefully pick it up in the morning. WHAT?? For real? How could there be that good of service? I figured I’d believe it when I saw it.
About two hours after Kalissa dropped it off, I got a call.
The files on my computer are gone. He’s gonna try a couple more things but he’s not very hopeful. He is going to put a new motherboard in my computer and reinstall a few things. It should be under $200. Not terrible but still not an expense I was anticipating.
It should take a day or two but I should have a computer back by then. It’s not the best news…it’s not the worst news. In the meantime, I’m scrambling trying to do what I can here on the laptop. I am not a laptop gal at all. I don’t love it but I’m thankful I have it as a backup so I can still write a blog post.
That’s the latest from the Kramer home.
Thank goodness the boys escaped unhurt; I’m so sorry you’ve lost your files.
Glad the little one is okay. While the cloud is great, I really prefer backing up to an external hard drive and do it often. Also if that’s an all-in-one computer I’d probably not put much money in it. I’ve replaced the hard drive in my mother-in-law’s twice and it’s never had much use and has never hit the floor.
It’s a good thing kids are cute, Huh?! I would suggest a portable hard drive. 1TB or bigger. When setting it up make the computer save to that device. I don’t save anything on my computer anymore.
Awww….Your experience is a good wake-up call for all of us to backup often. Like Joy, I use an external backup drive. I keep it in a nearby drawer and plug it in once a day for a few minutes. But one need sto safeguard that drive as well. My daughter-in-law had a similar experience. A professional wedding photographer, she kept all her clients’ photos in files on a giant backup drive as they took up lots of space on her laptop. Her toddler pulled her (unplugged) backup hard drive off the desk. The backup drive was damaged. The local repair guys had no luck. She sent it off to an expensive professional data recovery service where they were able to find the files.
Oh bummer! It is always a disappointment when we lose files on computer. So glad the boys weren’t injured. They are at the “into everything” stage and that lasts a long time, but is so fun!
So glad he escaped unhurt!! But it is sad about your computer. I back up nightly to my external hard drive. I do use a laptop and have gotten used to it. I use a regular mouse with it. I like that I can take it anywhere in the house with me. Everything is bluetooth. Like I said, I do save to the laptop, then when I put my laptop back at the desk, I transfer everything in that folder back over in their proper folders on the external drive. The only thing on this laptop is barebones. That way, it also runs faster as it is not bogged down with unneccasary files.
I hope that explains how I do my computer and maybe you can get some ideas for your new computer.
I’m glad the boys are okay. Re: EQ: your license allows you to put it on more than one computer, I think it’s two. If you contact them and explain what happened, you might be able to just download it to the new computer. It won’t recover your lost designs, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
I know exactly how you feel. I watch my grands every day, ages 1 1/2 and 3. Last month they pulled my laptop on the floor. The frame around the screen broke. I babied it for awhile, but finally took in in for repair. $300! I only paid $280 for it. Time for a new laptop.
Nobody was hurt is the main thing, but man – those littles get expensive! lol
Have a great day – looking forward to September when the weather cools off and fall is right behind. Perfect quilting weather!
Boy, we sure depend on our computers, don’t we?
So glad the boys are ok…and a lesson for me to back up my files.
Love and prayers
Don’t throw that nother board. My computer person has been able to recover all of my files 2 different times that my hard drive and mother board were damaged from a deop.
Oh the joys and troubles littles get into. I do recommend a back up drive.. my last boss had one and was able to reinstall all her saved info when a hacker introduced a virus to her computer. Fortunately her grandson is an experienced computer repair man. If he’s not sure of something he knows where to find the inflation. So glad your grands are O.K.
My first born pulled on a scarf as he was trying to walk. He pulled 3 houseplants down and broke all three flower pots. Dirt everywhere. So glad Eli wasn’t hurt, that is something big to be grateful for as he could have seriously been injured. Sorry about the computer, we are really dependent on them.
how was the yardsauce ???
I have such empathy for your computer challenge. Not children but the nearby transformer station that thieves were constantly breaking into to steal copper wiring etc that caused computers and other electronics to fry kept us busy with trips to the Geek squad. Amazing what they could find and put back together.
SO glad the boys didn’t get hurt – and SO sorry about your computer! Hope it all can be fixed and the files recovered – fingers crossed!
Thanks for the wake-up call – I need to get my files backed up. I was just talking about it the other day and will get busy with that asap!
Oh, NOOOOOOOO!!!! That’s terrible/wonderful news, Jo! Glad that the boys weren’t hurt, but SEW sad that your files weren’t able to be retrieved. Hoping that might somehow change!
Wow! I hope some things were saved to the cloud. I save everything important to One Drive. That has been a blessing on more than one occasion.
Sooooo, is that a roll-top desk? Could the roll-top be pulled closed over the monitor and computer when you are not at the desk? (Sometimes there’s even a lock and key.) I’m sure you are already re-thinking having a fabric runner under the keyboard.
Sounds like it’s time to baby proof the next level of your home, now that the twins are walking and rreeaachinng for things!
Oh my — it only takes a few seconds to create havoc, doesn’t it??? Very thankful that Eli didn’t get hurt!! Or Emmett. Here’s hoping that somebody else might have known another step to be able to recover all the lost things. I think it is possible a lot more often than most of us realize. I know my daughter uses a external hard drive for back up–she got a new one in July –and said they replace about every 2 years. I didn’t ask questions—-why?? How do they transfer all that info to the new one? Considering the things that may not be recovered–something to explore?? I know I have a lot on mine that doesn’t need to be, but I have a hard time actually being able to delete things permanently– mainly letters from maybe 7 years back.
Good luck –crossing my fingers and saying some prayers for you.
I had a similar situation. Back in 2009 some thief broke into my house in the daytime while I was out grocery shopping and took my laptop and its charger. I had vacation photos and lots of personal stuff on it. Called the police. Useless. It was never recovered. It was during winter break so I believe it was a HS boy. A beloved family pet had just died the day before. I cried for quite a while. At least your grandson is ok! Those twins are really cute!
Sorry for your computer woes, but glad the boys didn’t get hurt. I have external harddrives but don’t back up to them often enough. So I have a subscription to Dropbox and have my computer set up to save everything but the most temporary stuff to that. My computer also has a solid state drive for Windows and programs, plus a regular hard disk drive (D:) where what is supposed to be temporary gets stored. I think I’d better take care of what’s there! The Dropbox files are also on the D: drive so wouldn’t be affected if Windows would need to be reinstalled even if it meant reformatting the solid state drive. I have a love/hate relationship with computers since I had to keep several at the library alive while I worked there plus my own at home.
For anyone who has Amazon Prime, you can backup unlimited photos to your Prime cloud. You only get 5 GB of video space without buying more storage.
As far as EQ, you own the program and should be able to reinstall it. It doesn’t help with the designs you had, but at least you shouldn’t have to rebuy the program.
I’m glad the boys weren’t hurt and so sorry for your computer issues.
If your person is unable to recover your info let me know. My computer person says she would be willing to give it a try to get your info off. No charge. She has has pretty good luck with mine and has recovered info for law enforcement and a lawyer.
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