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Anne Ruthmann, New England Occupation: Photographer Website: Anne Ruthmann Photography About Me: Things that make me happy: old people getting crazy on the dance floor, world travel, hello hugs & goodbye kisses, cultural celebrations, acoustic live music, indie handmade crafts, cinema, environmental protection, diversity, the sound of nature, authenticity, white water rafting, discovering artists, photographing people in love. Things that bore me: bland food, celebrity gossip, negativity, fake anything, waiting in lines, egotism.
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ed note: This post was written by Anne’s intern Alexis.

Alexis: I don't think this hard drive is going to mount. It's been spinning for 5 minutes and I don't see it on the desktop.
Anne: Ok. [Takes hard drive and puts it in the freezer]
Alexis: Does that really work?
Anne: Hopefully!
Misty: [snore]

What's the moral of the story?

  • Yes, freezing a hard drive can actually work.
  • Always, always, back up your data! Anne's storage is…well, a little scattered at the moment, but she has everything, in more than one place. If that hard drive had failed to mount even after its stint in the freezer, it would not have been the end of the world. Precious wedding memories would NOT have been lost forever. Not only should the data be backed up, but you should know where it all is. That's something I'm helping Anne out with right now - cataloging her many, many hard drives. When I'm done, she's going to have a monster file that will tell her exactly what is on every single folder on every single hard drive.
  • RELAX. Freaking out about the hard drive really wouldn't have accomplished anything. To say that I'm a bit of a worrier is just a *slight* understatement. The whole point of having a good backup system, however, is to alleviate that worry and turn it into an annoyance at best. If you don't have a reliable system, the point at which your freezer becomes your best bet for data recovery might be a good time to start panicking. I'm just saying. Otherwise, just breathe. Anne is very much a roll-with-the-punches type of person, and I hope I can pick up some of that.
  • Bullet points make everything look more official and give the illusion that you know what you're talking about.
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3 Responses to “Zen and the Art of Data Management”

1.
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Miss Rye Bread

Have you ever had issues with a particular folder (say, for pictures!) not mounting? I’m a data analyst for a living; I’d say I’ve got the computer thing down pat. But recently I was trying to view my Pictures folder on my external hard drive, and it was the only EMPTY folder! Likely over 50 gb of photos (all personal, of course). I kind of doubt putting my drive in the freezer would help here, because the actual drive mounted, just one folder was unaccessible. Any tricks of the trade here? Any tips?

 
2.
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Anne Ruthmann

Hi Miss Rye!

The only time I’ve seen a hard drive mount, be accessible, but not show any of the files in a folder is when there is no system memory available because there are either too many things on the desktop taking up working memory, too many software applications running that consume memory, or if there’s simply not enough hard drive space left to run the memory that is needed to display all of the files in the folder. So, close all of your programs, take everything off of your desktop, empty your trash (provided nothing important is in there) and then check your memory. Unmount and try again. Let me know if that works!

 
3.
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LatteLove

Alexis, you’re hilarious.
agreed on the bullet point issue.
thanks for the tips.

 


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Anne @ Anne Ruthmann Photography Anne Ruthmann, New England Occupation: Photographer Website: Anne Ruthmann Photography About Me: Things that make me happy: old people getting crazy on the dance floor, world travel, hello hugs & goodbye kisses, cultural celebrations, acoustic live music, indie handmade crafts, cinema, environmental protection, diversity, the sound of nature, authenticity, white water rafting, discovering artists, photographing people in love. Things that bore me: bland food, celebrity gossip, negativity, fake anything, waiting in lines, egotism.
 
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