Gadget’s Fault … NOT
I’d like to think it was the fault of my AlphaSmart Dana, but to be honest, it was just my own carelessness.
I’d done some writing into the Dana yesterday morning. After saving the piece of writing, I found myself wondering if I should back up the file. It’s what I usually do, go to BackupBuddy, select the file and click the backup button.
For some (stupid) reason, I decided not to.
Yesterday afternoon, the Dana crashed. I pressed the reset button, and the Palm Powered logo came on, flashing. A flashing logo means the machine has gone into a loop and will not go beyond that.
A warm reset came to mind, but I forgot the sequence. So I went to the AlphaSmart Community Centre, did a search and found the discussion thread. I followed the instructions to press the reset button while holding the up scroll button, and didn’t let go of the up button until the Palm Powered logo appeared on the screen.
I waited, and waited, and waited. No Palm Powered logo appeared on the screen. It was time for a painful decision.
Hard reset?
The answer was obvious.
So, yes, I did a hard reset, followed by a restore of previously backed up files which, unfortunately, did not include the new file written in the morning.
You could tell me to take heart from the fact that it was only one file.
I could also console myself that I can rewrite if I wish, as I can remember what it was about, although not word-for-word. But I don’t think I will. It’s not a life-and-death piece of writing.
But for someone who’s always advised other people to back up their work on a regular basis, I sure didn’t practise what I preached this time.
