After spending hours carefully going through my laptop hard drive through an enclosure and hacking files through a command prompt (since Windows did not want to recognize the files), I was able to retrieve 95% of my data. Which includes about five podcasts and several lengthy pieces of writing I had feared lost. I’m now on the laptop with an image of the factory default, stealing wireless from a kind neighbor.

The moral of the story, folks, is this: No matter how healthy your drive appears to be, be sure to make images of your hard drive every month. And if you have a laptop, invest in an enclosure. They’re only about $20 and they will save your ass.

I should hopefully be back in earnest tomorrow.