A Lesson Learned

I made a BIG mistake with my computer! Actually, make that 2 BIG mistakes! One would have been bad enough, but the domino effect was at play. Cause and effect!

I thought I'd give you all a heads up and hope you don't do what I was doing! You know the cute little symbols at the top of the numbers? Do NOT use them in the beginning of the title of your documents so that the computer (windows) sorts them all nicely with the symbols, followed by numbers, and then followed by letters in a nice neat order. I was using the ~ for my most frequently used documents.

I'm also one of those who doesn't back up files as often as I probably should. I use to do it monthly like I really should. But I get busy and it takes some time to do and I put it off. I've been a bad procastinator! And it bit me in the fanny, or is that finger tips being it's the computer?

My computer had slowed down and sometimes was just plain dragging it's little memory "feet" badly. It's not a new computer any more. They age far too fast. They get fragmented bits in there and and get to the point they are looking for the proverbial computer "needle" in the "haystack" of a memory system. It was having a few "teenage" rebellious moments when there was an offer of a free mechanic program for 30 days, followed by a $4.99 monthly fee. I decided to take them up on the free 30 days. I didn't have time to do a major backup and to tell you the truth, I didn't even think about it. DUMB moment and DUMB impulses! Shame on me!

That mechanic program wiped out the docs with the ~ and I couldn't find anywhere to restore them. It didn't have any undo. I just let it do it's thing automatically instead of picking and choosing. I wouldn't have dreamt that my documents (VALUABLE) documents would have been wiped out so wouldn't have known to say no anyway! (PSA - But now you do!) I searched and searched. I searched the trash, the "recent changes" file, etc to no avail. They were GONE! So were some photos that came with the symbols as the first character. Those were most all downloads though so not so valuable.


I've lost my doc that had all the goat kiddings and dates, the doc with the registered names I was working on for this year's kids, and soooo so much more. My farm notes are gone! Some things are just inconveneient to have lost, like the list of seeds to buy for gardening and plants. Some of this was goals I was working towards, not just a list of seeds. All those notes were the crucial part of that. I lost my list of often used phone numbers and notes that go with them, addresses in some cases, etc. I also had some docs with resource links and links to google. I hate having lost that! One of the docs that affects me most here with blogging is my list of ideas to use for posting, some fun expressions I've run across, seasonal ideas, quotes, etc. That is another MAJOR loss. I'm still realizing what all I've lost!

I've lost the list of foods that I like to eat and cook with that have the glycemic index for both of us being diabetic. I had questions to ask the dietician the next time I see her, etc. This was just a convenience and organizational doc, but still of value. I had some medical directions that the doc gave me for tending to hubby (post stroke), etc. I lost the doc of all our prescriptions that was quite detailed with dates filled, refills left, dosages, notes, etc. That was extensive for hubby and pretty important for when he's hospitalized. He does count his own pills out into his daily plastic organizer but the bottles are tossed. This doc helped me keep tabs without him being constantly reminded, etc. It also helped me in calling for refills.

I had a LOT of organizational and reminder type docs that wiped out. I had them because I have short term memory issues from a bad accident in 1993. I've learned to adapt by keeping notes.

What a lesson to learn from. This happened a few weeks ago and I'm still realizing what a mess I've created! I do have backup discs that are labeled, but they aren't current enough! They won't have the last couple of months of "my life" that was on the computer.
Like we all know, a loss like this takes more recovery time than the time it would have taken to do the backups.... IF only I HAD thought to back up before running a new program!

So this is the end of my PSA (public service announcement) and telling the "world" of my errors! Just remember, those programs that clean up bits and pieces of unused programs, broken files, etc will wipe out anything with a symbol as the first key stroke to a document or file name! Don't do what I did!