‘You don't know what you got till it's gone’

Apologies to Joni Mitchell for borrowing a line from the lyrics of her song, BIG YELLOW TAXI … but it sums up how I feel as a result of the recent failure of my laptop’s removable hard drive.

I have spent a large part of the last forty-eight hours trying to retrieve as many files as I can, and so far I’ve recovered about 95% of ‘lost’ files. However, what has really annoyed me is the apparent randomness of the files that I’ve not been able to recover. For example, the Wargame Developments membership database has survived intact inside the WD file, but the spreadsheet that records the organisation’s accounts for the current year - and which was in the same file - is completely lost. Luckily, I had sent a copy of a recent version of the spreadsheet to the Assistant Treasurer, and I was able to use it as the basis for a new version of the spreadsheet.

After the initial panic, I began to think that rather than ‘weeping and gnashing my teeth’ (its seems to be my day for quotes!), I ought to seriously consider what file structure and files I need for the future.

To be truthful, like most people’s computers, the organisation of my existing files was borderline chaotic. I followed the directory structure laid down by Microsoft, namely having directories called Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos, and within which I had created subdirectories with names like ‘Blogpix’, ‘Blog Diaries’, ‘WD Files’, ‘Books’, etc. My files were then saved in the most appropriate subdirectory.

I have therefore decided not to copy everything that I have managed to reclaim onto my new day-to-day hard drive but to transfer files as and when I need them. I will also save these regularly used files onto my Cloud account so that I can minimise the possibility of a similar failure depriving me of valuable files.

It’s a plan … and hopefully it will help me turn what was otherwise a disaster into something positive.