Sigh!

I am pouting and considering crying.

This past July we bought a Mac computer. It's great, mostly. I must admit that I have not made the full transition. I go back and forth from that computer to my PC. While blogging, I upload pictures from Mac and then switch to PC to type out and shuffle the pictures around. My PC's hard drive filled up in the fall. After that time, I started putting ALL the pictures I took in the Mac. From what I've been told, Macs are super reliable and not prone to viruses.

The last two nights the iPhoto program where I manage my photos has not worked properly. I could not get it to open on the desktop. Today I called Mac support to help rectify this situation. Apparently, the problem was too advanced for the first two technicians. The third person seemed to know what he was talking about. He had me move folders and files and such around and then re import (from a file) the pictures into iPhoto. There were over 18,000 images on there. Tim the Tech told me it would take several hours. When we got home after an evening out and about, I discovered a message telling me that the computer could not recognize 999 files and therefore could not import. WHAT?! 999 images? The scary part for me is that it magically cut out at 999. That makes me think that that was the number where it stopped. There is a possibility that none of the pictures imported. Before I break down and wail, I want to talk to Tim tomorrow. I know it sounds silly, but I am scared that ALL THE PICTURES I have taken for the last six months are gone! ALL! I do realize that people have true problems in life, but to me, this is a biggie! No pictures of Max in the hospital?? Christmas gone?? Classroom parties vanished?? No pumpkin stand or Christmas Corral? And no, I do not have any back ups. I will pray for the best. If you wouldn't mind praying over my issue, I would certainly appreciate it.

An update for those interested.

I said my computer had 18,000 images. There are actually 22,000. Some are pictures taken from the PC this summer. When I talked to Tim today, he let me know that things didn't sound good at all. The action he had me perform yesterday did not yield positive results. In the "Master" file, I could see the thumbnails but the pictures wouldn't open. He said this shouldn't be happening because the program that should have opened them wasn't iPhoto. He felt that I had a few corrupt files that might have ruined all the rest. He had me go ahead and move the entire "master" folder to the external hard drive that Max bought this morning. This took about three hours. I cannot talk to Tim again until tomorrow morning.

The minor miracle that occurred? Well, I found the same folder in the external hard drive and was able to get the pictures to open. Tim never even suggested that was a possibility. They still will not load in iPhoto, but they are there in some way. I'm thinking prayers helped save the day and/or the folder just liked its new home. I successfully copied one file of pictures before my computer told me there wasn't enough space to perform that action. I'm taking this as a great sign. I think I have hours of transferring ahead of me, but I will be so very happy if that's all there is to this problem.

I do have an external hard drive for my PC, and I have made copies of different files. I am so silly having not backed up the Mac. I might use the excuse of my crazy fall/beginning of winter. I find myself using that excuse on a whole lot of things! Max is healing well--time for me to get my act in gear. And yes, I will be checking in to Carbonite. I also am making discs to keep at my mom's house in the event that my house burns down.

Thanks so much for all the words of encouragement and prayers! If you haven't backed up your photos, learn from me and get it done.