Missed it by THAT much

To quote Steve Carell..."Missed it by THAT much!!!!"

2 days have passed since my deadline and I have not completed my thesis. This was partially my fault and partially not.

As I was entering the final stretch of what would be my first draft, my computer suddenly became glitchy. Without cause or warning, it wouldn't let me save my thesis. Something was drastically wrong and I didn't know what. Having a Mac, I used the "repair disk utility" to see if something was wrong. A few minutes later I discovered that something indeed had gone awry, but it was fixable and fixed. I opened my thesis once again and began working. Unfortunately, a matter of minutes passed and my work was once again compromised. This time, I was highly suspecting something more malicious to be present causing the damage. I installed a malware search program to identify any wrong-doers and dispose of them accordingly. To my surprise, it was clean. Strange to say the least. As I began the disk repair again, it noted several corruptions, though it said that it was unable to repair the damage as it was running on the OS. I had to restart my computer and repair from the Rescue/Repair menue. Easy enough I thought. Before I restarted though, I saved back-up copies of my thesis and relatable files to Google-Drive (an online storage space...I highly recommend using it). I restarted my computer and ran the disk-repair.

Much to my dismay, there was a hard-disk error that was not repairable. My heart sank and I was sick. It suggested my backing everything up and Formatting my hard-drive. Oddly enough, it would not let me re-enter my computer to do so. I was stuck with what I had saved online and saved on my external hard drive (mostly everything... I routinely backup my hard drive every 10 days out of sheer paranoia for such an event as this). I raced to retrieve my thesis and informed my professor of the damage. Having a very understanding and heartfelt talk, she let me know it was okay and that she understood. Calmly I returned home to begin the process of repair.

I initially restored my computer from a previous back-up point. Not a bad solution, taking ~3 hours to do so, I was back in business and began typing away, working at lost figures/legends and all other manner of thesising. Within a half hour, my computer was once again...down. I decided to do a quick format of the hard drive and re-install everything. Luckily for me, I am a minor packrat and hold on to all of my electronics. I have a spare macbook that I was never willing to part ways with and so, I turned to it, my old and trusty friend. As my newest shiny toy was being stripped of all of its files and reinstalled, I began cautiously working on my old one. As I opened my back-up copies, I found that they too, were not functional and so, the corruption was one far reaching beyond my efforts to prevent such a disaster.

A modest amount of work was achieved as I was...disheartened to say the least. Such an event as this takes a lot out of a person...to see my efforts gone, through no fault of my own...no malicious program...no nothing...I felt scared to begin again and the full force of my passion and brain were not behind this. As the night progressed, I watched as the re-installation of my OS occurred (initially saying it would take 12 hours...and then 6) time dragged on. I decided not much would be accomplished at 11pm and so I closed up shop. I was, however, unable to sleep. I finally was greeted by the Sandman at 2am, only to be stirred awake by my Mac, an hour later, letting me know of its completion. A joyous moment, sure, but not one to be having at 3am. I grabbed my external hard drive and had it begin its process of restoration, replacing every file and program from my most recent backup. Hurray for this.

In the midst of everything. I found that the cause of the corruption was the fact that my thesis was "Too Big." To be clear, my thesis was in the 40-50 page range...however, due to figures and charts, the file size was 30+MB. Indeed a large file. Though Microsoft and Mac deny the claims, there are several forums which clearly describe when a file reaches a certain point in Office 2011, there is a problem that arises and this is it. A permanent hard-disk corruption. There is no alternative but to format it and anything new is lost. As I'm not the only one who has experienced this issue, I feel somewhat consoled and somewhat violated. I am angry with both companies...but mostly Microsoft. Having a prejudice against them, I recognize that I must take this into account, but their program cost me time, and energy...though there was no blood, plenty of tears and sweat were poured over this and it only enrages me further. Mac's Pages does not have this problem and I love them for it.

Most of yesterday was reserved for not writing, as it was my birthday and I felt compelled to enjoy it, as much as I could, despite the tragedy. I  removed Microsoft office 2011 from my computer only to find that the version of EndNote I possess would not function with Microsoft 2008. Disgruntled, I removed EndNote and restarted my computer. Alas, components remain and so, today, as I write from my Lab, my newest Mac is once again being Formatted (this time, at the most thorough level...doing a 7-pass sweep to ensure deletion. When I return home, I shall re-install the OS and hopefully continue my work from my newest computer.


Lesson's learned:

1) 1 back up isn't good enough
2) Don't just over-write a old file with a new update. Save Save SAVE
3) Keep old electronics. They may save you
4) Sometimes, you need to sit back, say "FUCK IT" and have some whiskey


Note: I discovered the conflict that caused the corruption to be the cause of an incompatibility between MS 2011 and Time Machine (a program responsible for systematic back-ups on the Mac). This problem normally isn't fatal, however, when a file larger that 30MB is being worked on, it becomes so.

For those who doubt and for those who wish to see for themselves: Microsoft Forum on Autosave/Time Machine


Additionally, I received another "No Thank You" from another school.

New Score:
Yes- 1
Interview - 1
No - 5
Unknown - 4