Death of A Hard Drive

My hard drive is dying. I could tell by the constant freezing and the corrupted files.  At first I thought it was a virus and ran the virus program but found nothing.  I ran anti-spyware and found nothing.  At this point, The freezing worsened.  The startup time lengthened.  I did restore after restore and you know when that happens, something bad is afoot.  I looked up all the symptons and realized the hard drive was failing.

Then I did what every author with a new book contract would do.  I backed up my book.  I had been all along, so it wasn’t too bad.  I backed up it and everything on my laptop on a portable hard drive, then I backed up using Dropbox, and also saved my book files on a flash drive.  You can’t be too careful.

Because I have a Lenovo laptop, a facility within the computer gave me a popup window with a critical notice.  It said that my Seagate was critical, gave me a code, and said to call Lenovo support and give them the code.   I did and they are very pleasant. I had bought the three year extension warranty.  (Excellent thing to do!)  They knew the code right away and are now sending me a new hard drive and system disks.   So when all that arrives, I will begin the GRAND REINSTALLATION.  You know how that is.

Several years ago, I would have cried over this.  I mean here I am with a new book contract and my laptop is in jeopardy.  But somehow I’ve managed a little bit of wisdom gained over time and a more philosophical view on the matter.  It all reminds me of an old Zen Buddhist story I had heard and somewhat embraced.  It’s called the story of “The Broken Cup”.

The Zen master Ikkyu was clever even as a boy.

One day he happened to break a tea cup that his teacher had cherished. It was a precious cup.

Hearing the footsteps of his teacher, Ikkyu crossed his hands back holding the broken pieces behind him. When the teacher arrived, Ikkyu asked : “Why do people have to die someday?”

The teacher replied, “This is natural. All that  exists will have to perish someday.”

Ikkyu immediately produced the broken cup and said, ” The time has come for your cup to die”

*

So even though I didn’t break my laptop, I’ve come to realize that it is time for my laptop to die.  We tend not to think that mechanical things have to abide to the same laws as nature.

So I will continue in the time being albeit a little more slowly on my little netbook.    Remember:  Don’t mourn for a computer and back up everything.  (In multiple places.) And getting the extended warranty is not a bad idea.

–Susan

Susan Hanniford Crowley

http://www.susanhannifordcrowley.com

Filed under: Susan Hanniford Crowley, What A Writer Needs, Writer's Life, Writing Topics