The hard drive on my 13 month old Apple MacBook Pro died on Tuesday, conveniently as I was plugging into a projector to give a presentation to a room full of people. This isn’t the first time my most essential business tool has let me down:

• Faulty memory replaced….twice
• Replacement Logic Board
• Replacement AirPort WiFi card
• DVD Super Drive has failed
• Battery lasts about 30 minutes

By the time it is finally repaired, it will essentially be a new machine.

After 3 days of disruption, I’m now almost back to full productivity and only lost a day’s data in the end, which wasn’t that major. Using Gmail as my email mailbox was a lifesaver. I was at least able to keep on top of that and still access all my archived messages.

I do need to review my contingency plan though as it caused me far more problems than I had anticipated. I think it is just getting a computer set up again to how you want it.

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt this time Apple, but please don’t let me down again.