Okay, so I got my new drive (thanks LaCie!). It is the same size as the old one, but slightly better… the previous one had been FW&USB, this one is FW&USB2. Hey, I’m all for it… especially since the recovery attempt failed, so the unexpected bus upgrade helps cheer me up.
The recovery attempt cost me $200. When they opened the drive, they discovered that the reader head had broken off and physically shredded the platter, completely eradicating my data. Nothing to be done. At least now I know. If another drive fails in the future, I’ll probably use DriveSavers again… they were expensive (most are), but they were cool enough to not treat me like an idiot.
The good side: I cleaned my apartment, and dug out my old archives from when I upgraded from my iBook to my TiBook. That caught me up in terms of images to a year ago. I had from June until end of October on my other external drive, so that leaves me with a few months in the beginning of 2002, and November 02 through Jan 03. So call it 6 months of images. I’m pretty pleased with this. Would’ve been BETTER to not have lost any, but this amount of recovery certainly eases the frustration and aggravation.
So here is what I’m implementing for a backup proceedure: archive by month to CD, PLUS an annual archive to DVD. That way I have a backup on a month to month basis, as well as a year-long catchall. At least until I can get a full RAID array set up (money and time, I have neither), this will be acceptable.
Hopefully I’ll find time in the coming few weeks to really get in some solid updates for the site. Such as some backend work that will make updating static info (like links) a little less static.
Oh yeah… I’m leaving up the Paypal link. I know it is cheesy (I’ll probably at least make a spiff link image), but I figure it can’t hurt to leave a way for people to drop a few coins in my coffers if they happen to like the site. Besides, Mickey and I are getting married soon, and could certainly use cash as a wedding gift (she needs a new car, and we’d like to try and buy a house or condo when we move). (Hey, don’t get offended… I know it is considered poor form to request money as a wedding gift… but ultimately, that’s what we really need, and this is a personal site, so I don’t mind being blunt about it.)