400,000 yen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I took Hiroshi with me and my computer up to Akihabara today. First stop was Laox, where I had originally bought the hard drive. The guy there said I could send it to Logitech and they might be able to fix it, but it would take 10 days. What? I need it now though! He nicely offered to just give me a new hard drive which I could take to a repair shop to swap with the crap drive (and then I would bring the crap drive back to him).

I thought that I had better go to the repair shop to see if it could be done cheaply in a few days. So, off to the repair shop (a good kilometer away) we went. The man there looked at it and said there was a 10 percent chance that it was my logic board, but that my hard drive was probably dead. Data recovery - really expensive. His quote... get ready... 100,000 yen for 200 MB! Yes, that is like US$1000 for 200 MB of data!! Are they nuts???!!!

Guess that means I am sending my Mac off to Logitech. Back to Laox we go. We find the salesman, and say we will send it to Logitech. Only, he can only send the hard drive, not the computer. I have to go and get someone to take it out, and pay 10,000 yen. Then when I got the replacement, I'd have to pay another 10,000 yen to put the new one back in! What the heck?? Oh, and "Logitech won't do data recovery. And, this company here (shows us a webpage on his laptop) is the cheapest place... to recover the data on your 80GB hard drive ... (click, scroll) will cost... 400,000 yen." FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND YEN?!! They must be joking. Trust me, I was shocked at the 100,000 for 200 MB. This means my data really, truly is lost.

The fun thing I realized yesterday is that I had backed up my applications folder, but I don't have any of my personal data. Why? Because Mac doesn't store your personal data in with the programs (e.g. your e-mail addresses and bookmarks in your browser). It stores them in a special place (the architecture allows multiple users on a Mac, so the data needs to be separate from the program itself). I didn't back that folder up. I also didn't back up anything on OS 9 (I am running OS 10, but the computer also runs OS 9 so you can run older programs). All of my work stuff.... in the OS 9 part. This of course is all of the important stuff that I need! Can you see the scowl on my face?

Anyway, back to the story, we take the hard drive and my computer and troop to the repair shop down the street that the sales guy recommended. We get lost. Finally, we find the place, and, it isn't open Sundays. So we go walk back to the original repair shop I went to. He swaps out the drives, and.... there is a problem. I become hopeful, maybe it is the logic board, and my data is saved! But, nope, the gods have transpired to take my data away. The new one just doesn't work. Yes, I kid you not, the brand new replacement drive was broken. Logitech sssuuuuuuucks!

The repair man's comment, "You are unlucky!". This man was really nice, so this was kinda funny, but gee, thanks. Back to Laox we go to get a replacement for the replacement. Of course, we only have 15 minutes to get the hard drive and return to the repair shop before it closes. Thankfully, the repair man said he would wait for us to drop off the hard drive and that he would finish installing it tomorrow. So I get to go back tomorrow. Then I get to have all kinds of fun reinstalling everything! Not.

The only good think that happened today was that I realized all of my contact information is on my iPod. Phew! I have most people's e-mails still. I thought I had lost them all. Good thing I copied them over when I was playing with my iPod when I first bought it.

Anyway, after walking about 50 kilometers today, Hiroshi and I are exhausted. I'm sad that the data that I need to make my life easier is gone. So I went to the '610 yen a piece' cake store on the way home. I need cake today. And not just any cake, really good stuff. I figure I've already walked all those calories off.