A while back I wiped out pretty much every important file I had on my computer, which is to say that I wiped two files--my MS Money save file and my Lifelog. More recently I ran across a quote something along the lines of "Data backup is important because it protects you not only from the small but not inconsequential risk of a hard drive failure, but because it also protects you from the rather larger risk that, eventually, no matter how many 'Are you sure?' dialog boxes you have to click through to do it, you're confidently going to destroy all your own files." I winced and almost cried when I read that.

It started out by me trying to fix the Network Connections control panel in Windows XP. Couldn't get the wireless card to work without shaking out the bugs and stomping them. So I tried using the "Repair installation" option from the Win XP install CD. No dice. So, being rather less technically savy than I'd like to believe, I went straight to the more drastic measure of reinstalling Windows in it's entirety. Without backing anything up first. It fixed the network problem, but now I couldn't access anything in my old "Documents and Settings" folder -- basically everything personal and important, the kind of stuff you can't just reinstall. I fought against this for a couple days, trying to find a way to get at the files, all the while doubting that they were even really there. Finally became convinced that they were either already wiped and the old Docs and Settings folder was just a mirage, or just as bad, that the files were there but completely unretrievable. Since my file system was a bit of a mess at this point, with orphan files hanging out everywhere and programs that wouldn't boot since they weren't in the registry, I decided to clean everything up, reformat C: and reinstall. So I confidently clicked through some more "Are you sure?" dialog boxes and erased any last hope of retrieving the lost files.

Clean install, everything's working spiffy. Happily loading tons of music & games back onto my computer, but mourning the loss of my Lifelog and annoyed at the hassle of reconstructing my financial accounts. Sadistic curiosity... still looking for ways I could have rescued the files. A glum face, and an aching feeling of loss deep inside--finally found a solution that would have worked. It was clear, it would have worked with XP Home, and it was too late.

So that's the story of why, after several sporadic years of keeping a Lifelog, I'm now starting completely anew. More determined this time, perhaps, but stung by the loss of a bit of personal history none the less.

I figure that if it's going to have to be new, this lifelog might as well be "new and improved." So this time around I'm scheduling at least one hour a week to write in it, plus I'll be taking advantage of such catch-phrases as "new media formats" and "improved distribution mechanisms" and "backup" to ensure that this project stays "fresh and relevant in today's fast-paced world." In other words, I'm going to try doing an occasional video log as an adjunct to the text log, I'm considering firing up the Blogger.com account again so that anyone who's interested can read it, and am absolutely positively going to make regular backups this time around... eventually.