Prophecies Not To Be Ignored

Why is it so hard for us to take words of wisdom from others? Why do we insist on learning things for ourselves, usually the hard way, when others have gone before us and clearly mapped out the cause and effect, which could neatly save us similar heartache? Why do we think that things will work out differently for us?

I was warned. I listened but did not heed the message. The oracle spoke, I heard and I promptly dismissed the prophecy. I had to learn it myself, didn't I? Well, I learned a lesson alright. As my external hard drive smashed onto my cold, white ceramic tile floor, the prophecy was fulfilled. All the images I had shot over the last two months lay in a pile of disconnected bits. Actually, 3.38 gigabytes, to be precise, were now scrambled. And you guessed it, not one byte had been backed up. I pause here for you to take this in....Very disappointing, wouldn't you say?

I had much distress over this. A hard drive is replaceable but some of those images I could cry over. Family, friends, my kids doing ordinary stuff, perfect light. Gone! Uuugh!

To add insult to this situation, I had just the night before moved all my images from my internal drive to the external hard drive. For safe keeping so I thought.

But the gods of all things digital were kind to me. The next day my darling hubby had a flash of genius. Well, actually he just remembered how I do things on a computer. When I said I "moved" the files I really meant I "copied, pasted, then deleted the duplicate". I have this fear of moving files and not being able to find them. So I take the extra effort and keystrokes to copy them and make sure they get to the place I want them to be. And then I go back and delete them from the original spot. My hubby, who is in IT for a living, thinks this is very funny. I thought it was very funny too when he checked my recycle bin and ALL my images were safely tucked away right there! Who's laughing now? Me...hysterically because I have my images back!!!

I immediately rescued them from the recycle bin and backed them all up on CD. And I will tomorrow get a new external drive (or maybe even two) and back them up there. And then after that, I will upload them to a remote online backup storage service for extra security. And I will make backups every week and I will never, ever get such a backlog of at-risk images again!

In the 24 hours when I "lost" my images, I clearly learned my lesson about backup storage. Whether you just shoot for your own pleasure and posterity or you shoot for a living, please take my word for it...Backup your photos!!!! Here's a great reference for ways to backup your stuff. Actually, it's the original prophecy that I ignored. Don't make the same mistake I did.

I got a second chance at my images. Without it, I couldn't share these with you. Ominous enough for you?