How to Lose a Year-and-a-Half’s Worth of Pictures in One Easy Step

I thought I was going to instantly be sick. This couldn't be happening to me. I try so hard to be careful on-line, I have internet security, I follow an updating protocol, I know you're supposed to back things up.

Yet, there I was staring at a laptop with a black screen and a flashing message that indicated something was very seriously wrong.

This wasn't just any laptop, this was the one I had downloaded all of our family photos onto. This was the back-up for all of our phones, tablets, and other laptops. On this laptop were the last photos of my father-in-law, he passed away last January; the last photos of Aunt Helgi, she passed away last February; videos and photos of our first grandson, scanned photos of my grandparents, holidays, and memories, so many memories.

A year-and-a-half worth of pictures and videos gone in an instant, and I take a lot of pictures. Had I meant to get an external hard-drive, absolutely. Did I think about which cloud service would work for us, yes, had I done anything about it, I'm ashamed to have to answer no.

For almost 7 months, I have thought about these photos, kicked myself for having not been pro-active in saving our family's memories. Then today, the most amazing thing happened. A friend of mine said he would take a look and see if he could get the photos off of the machine. 

He did it, he got them and now they are safely on my newly-purchased, external hard-drive and tonight they will also go in my on-line storage. I cried when I saw the pictures and videos again. I can't wait to show my husband.

Don't let this happen to you. How many photos do you keep stored on your phone, tablet, or laptop? You always promise yourself that you'll back them up, you'll get an external hard-drive. Please, don't be like me. Go get it now, you'll save yourself heartache and regret.

Trust me on this one.