My Hard Drive

Another blog post brought you by my Comp 2 class. Because I have no time to write otherwise and this paper turned out blog post worthy.

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It’s about as modern as an artifact can and yet it can hold so much history. My hard drive, which sits next to the family desktop computer, is one of my most valued possessions. It’s so important to me, that when the tornado siren goes off, that’s the first thing I grab on the way to the basement. But I supposed it’s not the actual device that really matters to me. As long as the content that is stored on it is safe, I can rest easy.

What’s on this hard drive? My life history in photos and videos, as well as other documents like my resume. Each year of my life is represented and recounted in the numerous folders on this device. It holds memories of me from my parents perspective from before my own memory began saving events and details. It’s an easy way to walk down memory lane when I’m feeling nostalgic. If I’m trying to recall details of a specific memory, I can quickly find the documentation that I have of that event. It’s like a living journal that visually conveys the emotions I have felt and shows the things that I’ve seen. It automatically highlights what was important to me at various times in my life because of the things that I decided to capture and preserve through digital media at the time.

Though I’ve never really understood where it comes from, I’ve had an inner drive from a young age to preserve my personal and family history. When I bought my first hard drive at about the age of 14, I was beyond excited. I don’t think it’s a common thing for a teenager to wish for a hard drive, but it meant a lot to me. I had been saving everything digital that I owned on the family computer which was quickly running out of storage space. Having my own portable space to keep all my digital treasures made me feel limitless. Several years later, I found that the storage space was running out yet again. I bought a new hard drive with triple the amount of space than the first hard drive, transferred everything from my old hard drive over to the new one, and wiped the old one clean. In the process, though, a folder was lost without me noticing. Several months after the transfer, I was looking for pictures from our family trip to Utah and Yellowstone but they were nowhere to be found. I was devastated. I can’t imagine how horrific it would be if I lost everything on my hard drive.