The other day I was one of the COM editing lounges putting the finishing touches on a video package due later that day. For whatever reason, I turned my chair around and accidentally snagged the USB wire connecting my external hard drive to the computer. As my hard drive went crashing to the ground, one of my friends jokingly said from across the room: “I hope you liked your hard drive.”
I laughed it off and plugged it back in to resume work, but then the worst happened: my hard drive started making a loud whirring noise, and didn’t show up on the desktop. I immediately snatched the hard drive out of the computer and went running straight for the tech crew down the hall. He plugged it in, held it up to his ear, and said two syllables: “uh oh.”
As a broadcast student getting ready to enter the job market, an external hard drive is of utmost importance: on it was every package from every class I’ve ever taken at BU. There’s anchoring clips, live stand ups, sports features, hard news stories—everything!
Currently, my hard drive is in the hands of the BU IT department, and I’m hoping for the best. However, in the event of a worst-case scenario, all hope is not lost. Past and current professors have stepped up, offering their support (“We’ll do more projects to replace what you lost!”) and assistance (“I have some of your packages saved from the class you took with me”). I’m confident that between what might be left over on other people’s hard drives and what might be hidden in the archives of BUTV, I’ll be able to pull almost all of my content together.
Throughout all of this, the funniest thing is that most of the people I’ve told this story have had a similar reaction: did you back it up? I never knew I had to back up my external hard drive, which is supposed to be my back up! So to everyone else reading this, do yourself a favor and back up your back up! And if you don’t back up your back up and your back up fails… make sure you have people behind your back to help you figure out the next step! 🙂
