I don't even know
where to start. This is kicking my ass to an
embarrasing level. I am reacting worse to this than to
losing loved ones to death, divorce... it sickens me
to say that but it's the truth. Ugh. Here's the
story.
With my time off I
decided to finally put together the "Late
Show" Journey for the site. I kept an
extremely detailed journal during the WTVN years and
there's some incredible little stories with Cannon and
Darryl that are just crazy. That matched with all the
clips from the show and even some video...I could put
together an incredible section of the site in
"Journey" format. Admittedly something 5 people
would be interested in, but since I'm one of those
people it's worth it... :-) The log however is on an
extrenal harddrive that I lost the power cable to
and I had to get a new casing for the drive to
plug it in. Bought that, and when I took the old
casing apart I realized it was just a normal
harddrive and decided to put it in my current computer
rather than even open the new casing so I could
return it.
(sigh)
When I opened
my computer to pop it in I ended up shocking my C
Drive. My main, 250 gig harddrive that houses...
everything. 250 gigs is a lot. Every journey video in
2005 and 2006, all 3 trinitrons, every song I've done
since 2004, every picture I've taken... As many of you
know I have about 600 gigs of stuff and no real way to
back things up. From time to time I back-up on
tape, randomly copy stuff (so I may have say 30
of the 150 Journey videos scattered) to other
harddrives but when you work with video - you're kinda
screwed. I hadn't backed up to tape in quite
awhile, and goddamn - "Let's Bomb Iran", the song for
the new cartoon... I can't even accept
it...
...and didn't for
the first 2 days. I went into shock. First of all
- it's my C Drive. I can't even run my computer.
Secondly, I ended up using the new casing and
plugged the "WTVN log" drive into my laptop and
it worked perfectly... so I really had no need to even
open my computer. For you techies out there the drive
doesn't even spin, so it's pretty clear I just
screwed up the card controlling the drive.
I
bought the identical drive and replaced
the controller cards and it actually made
the drive spin, but it made this wretched
clinking sound and was
not
detected.
I assume the reason was the new
drive's card was made August 2006 and my
hosed drive was made in October 2004...the
firmware is different. But the drive DID
spin. I just need to somehow find
someone who has my exact drive, a Western
Digital, 250 gig harddrive (WD2500JB) made
in or around October 2004.
Harddrive recovery
places are unfortunately, not even an option. For this
much info you actually get into 5 figures. I am really
hoping for a miracle as this is a loss I simply
cannot accept. I actually haven't been able to even
TALK about it with people. This happened almost a
week ago and I can't even bring myself to explain
it to people. I have to completely ignore it. Luckily,
working on the WTVN logs has provided that escape but
whew... this is so devastating.
The question soon
becomes what's a legitimate way to back up everything?
When you're working with video, it's like working with
borrowed time. You can't really back up to DVD as 4.7
gigs is about 20 minutes of video. Dual harddrives are
just as susceptible to being zapped as one, although
less likely. Also is it realistic? When you'd need 1.2
Terrabytes of drives? Backing up to tape (which I've
done for most of my videos) is the scariest of all
propositions because that shit breaks down over time.
Everywhere you look you seem to be at the mercy of
technology. We're all really in danger of losing a
generations worth of information in the next 20-30
years. No back-up is safe. That old box of physical
pictures stands the test of time better than all of
'em. For a guy like me it's even worse. I'm not sure
there is a man alive who is more at the mercy of his
computer than me. My entire life is lierally
"untouchable". It's ALLLL 1's and 0's and
I chronicle every moment so detailed that losing
EVEN ONE Journey video is enough to make me sick
to my stomach, but hudreds? I simply cannot comprehend
the notion. I honestly want to get out of this entry
as fast as possible so I can jump back into 1996
with my WTVN logs and escape. I am almost on the
verge of tears when I think about how precious
that stuff is to me. Goddamn...let someone have that
harddrive. Again, Western Digital harddrive, 250 gigs
(WD2500JB) made in 2004. I don't need the whole drive,
and if you happen to live in Columbus I will
fucking fly to your house to set up the transfer so
you're not without your drive for more than a few
hours. As well I'll pay you, buy you a new 250 gig
drive...whatever we work out.
OK. It's done,
I can go hide now and act like this isn't really
happening.
