Computer woes

My last post talked about the storm and loss of my computer modem. It was in the shop far longer than I expected given my rushing it down there the very next morning after the storms. My intent was to get it there before the "rush" came in. In my haste I didn't take time to back up my Outlook files but didn't anticipate a problem since it was only for a modem card: remove the case, pull the bad card and snap in the new one. Should have done it myself but I also asked them to install Internet Explorer 7 since I only have dial up at the farm and download times are prohibitive. As I was checking it in, they asked if there was anything critical on the computer. I told them that My Documents was very important and all of the Outlook files were critical since it contained my address book and calendars including my reservation data. I don't know why they asked me what was important and perhaps that should have been a clue to me.

In spite of my efforts to get it there ahead of the crowd, it still wasn't ready until last Friday (over a week). In the meantime, I had had numerous requests for reservations for summer and my reservations are all on the calendar in Outlook so I hooked it up straight away to attend to those. Surprise - it sure didn't look like my computer. Short answer - they reformatted my entire hard drive. I called them and they have zero explanation other than it was a mistake. They had backed up My Documents and reinstalled it after the reformat but they had ignored the Outlook files completely. They offered to attempt to recover the files so I took it back to them. I got it back yesterday but they were unable to recover any of my Outlook files including email, address books, and calendars. I lost all of my reservations and contact information for all of my Bed & Breakfast reservations and inquiries. I lost all of the farm data such as livestock breeding and birthing dates, and I lost my calendar that I have been keeping to record weather, migration, and such that I called Nature. This is a catastrophe and I have no excuse other than I should have backed it up. The shop had no reason to do anything with the hard drive other than install a program. My files should have been safe.

SO, if you have contacted me and not received a response, please call or email again. If you have reservations for June - December, 2008 please contact me ASAP so that I can get your dates recorded. I have a reasonably good memory and have recreated the reservations from memory but have no names and contact information for you. I generally remember which rooms for which weekends but would feel much better if you could contact me to confirm that I am not mistaken.

I apologize sincerely for this problem. I erred in not backing up the data. I have never had a professional make such a mistake so didn't anticipate the problem especially after giving them the information about critical files. I am so sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.