Sadly, my computer hard disk died on me last week.
Luckily I have back ups done for my client work on a regular basis but 6+ years of personal stuff – sketches, ideas, plans, stories, etc – are all gone.
When I fired up my email application yesterday, my inbox was empty. I’ve lost all my emails too.
A similar event happened to me a few years ago.I used to have backups of all my work on Zip disks then (does anyone remember those blue disks?). When my then PC got corrupted beyond repair, I didn’t really worry because thought I could rely on the backup data on my zip disks. But no – ALL the disk were corrupted and unreadable. 5 years of work gone. ;(
I have to admit there’s a certain amount of liberation, starting on a clean slate. But I’m a little worried about data preservation at the moment. Will my data DVDs last? If they do will there still be DVD readers in future? Do I need to transfer my files onto a new hard disk every few years? Do I need to upload all 89 million terabytes of my digital photos to Flickr? Should I carve my ideas in stone? Or blog every tiny detail of my life online? Hmmm…
Speaking of letting the tears flow, I caught this ad (commissioned by the Ministry of Community Development Singapore and directed by Yasmin Ahmad) twice this week and I cried both times!
I will be enjoying the long weekend with my family and hope you’ll have a good one too. :)