Disaster

I plug in my external hard drive and nothing happens. I see the drive start up and spin, but no window opens, no PIN prompt comes up. I cannot find the device on my computer.  I try several times over; same result.

Most of my writing is consolidated on the drive, though there are other scattered digital sources and hard copy… for most of my writing.

My mind flashes to when I grabbed up an extendible flashlight. You know those with a magnet on one end. I discovered my external hard drive clinging to said magnet and I yanked it free.

Had I wiped the entire drive. And I’m not talking about ‘with a cloth.’

Then my wife and I watched the movie, an Amazon original, “Paterson” and life suddenly comes into alignment. A movie about a man with a boring life and a crazy wife who writes poetry. The life most all married men have. Watch the movie if you want to catch the connection.

Then when everything finally makes sense, I set to one of my tasks, added to the list in response to my apparent loss of files, on that weekly list of things to do: review all digital backups.

A few weeks after I have logged my external hard drive as a digital waste land, I plug in my external hard drive once again, just for giggles and laughs. The prompt for my PIN comes up. I stare in wonderment, contemplating whether this is really happening or not and enter my PIN.

Walla!

It appears all my files are there, and undamaged. The One Cloud feature had come up on my computer, a feature I have noticed since Windows10 came out. Not exactly sure what One Cloud is (possibly a cloud backup), but I considered the possibility it may have had something to do with my uncharacteristically good fortune. Yet I have no recollections of saving anything to that mythical cloud that holds all secrets.

Disaster averted.

Then I think, “Wait a minute.”

Back over a year ago I wrote how this particular device had disappeared for some three months. And when It suddenly appeared in a place I had searched five times over, having completely emptied my computer bag each time, I found myself in dismay. It is not a small device. When I connected it up after its three month absence, I was prompted through my Windows file folder to open the device then enter my PIN.

This is not how I had accessed the device originally, when I first purchased it.

Originally I received a direct prompt for my PIN from the device…as I do now.

There is a story in there somewhere. Truth or fiction, it is hard to say which would be more interesting.

Multi-tasking is out. It is like when they said butter is bad for us but then we all realized we were lied to. Garden, home renovations have held the spotlight for a while. After receiving quotes for various projects, I realized that I can earn nearly a years salary in savings if I could do all that work myself this year.

Still, I am scheduling in the writing, providing some extended focus time.

Almost losing all my easily accessible work I feel prodded to get the stories/books done.

Thanks for reading.