Mac Review Cast

It's safe to say that being told by a computer expert my external hard drive is in fact dead and all my music files are in fact GONE feels about as awful as losing a pet or a limb. I am heartbroken as my iTunes folder is empty after a near decade of filling it with MP3s - the worst part being old demos of mine and rare records that had been transferred over to the digital format.

Fucking hell.

So the least I can do is pass along some wisdom the very kind owner of ALB Tech in Richmond told me. Listen up owners of mega music files. This is important stuff and there are only three key points to consider.

1) External hard drives are handy dandy and great for quick access to files we don't want to store directly on our computers BUT they are fragile moody creatures. They don't travel well (IE not meant to be tossed in bags where ever we go) and won't last forever. You should have one but leave it in one place and bring your computer to it. Also he recommends a larger sized external hard drive because you will be less likely to man handle it.

2) Back up your files on line via a company like www.mozy.com or www.carbonite.com . You will have pay a small monthly fee for renting space from one of these sights ($5 ) BUT you will have the security of knowing all your important stuff is 100% saved and can be retrieved at any time from any computer. The really great thing is the space you rent from these sites is UNLIMITED!!!!

3) Keep using your external hard drive for quick retrieval of files but when you transfer new files to it daily / weekly / monthly (depending on how often you are adding new files in need of protecting or saving) , make sure you are saving this same information on line too.

As sad as I am about the loss of all my music files Adam at ALB Tech didn't charge me for pulling apart my WD Passport and testing it which was good news for the very broke me. They won't charge you to to a diagnostic check for data retrieval so keep that in mind you local Richmond types.