As mentioned earlier, an external hard drive failed. The backup service I used - I must have set it up wrong because it didn't back up what I thought I was backing up. My mistake and the first...
Lesson Learned: Verify that systems are working the way you think they should be working. And if they're not, FIX THEM before you have otherwise avoidable trouble.
We often talk about lessons learned. But what about lessons we are learning as we go along? Here's one.
Lesson Learning: When your house is struck by a meteor, look for the valuable metals and other "assets" it brought your way.
Translation: While I am having the hard drive being worked over to see if my data can be restored, I am also looking at this as an huge opportunity to start over.
I don't know what it is that makes me hesitate starting over on my own terms, when I am ready, and why I have to wait for something like this to strike. Maybe another lesson to learn is that every few months or so, I should re-examine things to see if I want to start over on my own terms.
Lesson Learned: Redundancy - NASA uses massive redundancy in its critical missions to ensure that if something goes wrong, the mission continues without a hiccup. What's good for NASA is good for me. With the price of data drives these days, and especially with the price of data recovery (if it is possible at all), there are far fewer justifications for not having redundant data drives. I figure I will have 3 - plus offsite backup that I configure and test (see the first Lesson Learned).
Drive #1 - main drive, the work horse.
Drive #2 - backup drive #1
Drive 33 - backup drive #2
Backup drive #2 will be stored offsite and refreshed every week, which is about the level of pain I can easily cope with should there be a site-wide failure, like the house getting flooded and then being overrun by fresh-water piranha, alligators and locus. My house might be gone, but by gum, I'll still have a data drive!
Lesson Learned: This is the big lesson. Recover psychologically as fast as you can. Doing a lessons learned exercise is a good way to start! But it's just an exercise. In my case, i started the psychological recovery within 2 hours of finding out I had a major computer problem. Notice that last sentence. I made sure to include a word in it that is part of my psychoogical recovery. The word? Computer. I had a computer problem. That's all. Just a problem with my comptuer. I was fine. My health - unaffected. My marriage? Strong as ever. My ability to enjoy my immediate environment? Unaffected. Plans for the day? Changed but clearly a choice as to whether I'd view them as an "Oy vey!" or an "Exciting stuff!"
