I spilled water on my laptop keyboard, freaked, and headed straight to the Apple Store. “Did you recently back up your laptop?” the Apple representative asked me.
“Yeah,” I replied, “it’s on auto-backup, so everything should be up to date.”
It wasn’t!
The Apple Store representative explained that they would have to take apart my computer, open it up, and remove the liquid. I nodded and told him I’d pick it up in a week when it was ready. He took my laptop and walked away. That was the last time I saw my entire life’s work for the past eight years.
Where it all went wrong
Every file I had ever worked on since the beginning of high school I saved to my desktop. I had folders for everything: music I had worked on since I was 15, my creative writing portfolio from high school, my news writing portfolio from college, every resume I’ve ever made, every cover letter I had ever written, and even every little assignment I submitted. Since it was all saved on my laptop, I assumed it was safe. But I was wrong.
Somehow my files were not connected to my iCloud account. I was confused when I picked up my laptop at the Apple Store a week later. My desktop profile hadn’t come up, but I was too excited to get it back. I just followed what the representative told me to do and went on my way. But when I got home, I realized there was something seriously wrong. None of the files on my laptop were saved, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t access the profile with them. I quickly spiraled and called my dad, pleading for help. We checked iCloud, but they were not there. We checked previous versions of macOS, but nothing.
After sobbing on the phone with my dad, I returned to the Apple Store. My visit lasted a total of ten minutes, and I was told my life’s work was gone forever. I couldn’t hold back the tears that time.
Protect and Backup
One of my professors from the first day of classes always showed us how to protect our laptops with keyboard covers and hard cases. He also stressed the importance of backing up all files to an external hard drive every night. https://smuccpa.com/411-protect-it/
Two months later: picking up the pieces
Unfortunately, this story doesn’t have the happy ending you may be looking for. Two months later, I still haven’t been able to retrieve my work. I started picking up the pieces a few days after my spiral, emailing old professors and previous employers for any of my work they might have. I received back a version or two of my resume, one version of my cover letter (that I had about 200 versions of), and one portfolio of classwork. Still waiting on 90% of my life’s work, I accepted that I must start from ground zero.
What did I learn from this? ALWAYS back up to your iCloud and back up to a second external hard drive while you’re at it.
