I have a new idea of a computer accessory that we should have hanging around the office. A just-in-case hard drive enclosure for the critical hard drive(s) in your development machine(s).

Here's how I arrived at this bit of wisdom.

I was up early this morning and at 6:30 discovered that my development machine was hosed. Not the Blue Screen of Death - thank goodness my drive was okay. But something was seriously wrong with internal power and I was getting a blinking amber light with no boot. The computer had made some horrible sounds before I attempted to reboot.

My warranty had recently ended so after a bunch of internet searching, I got on the phone with a local hardware guy, who occasionally attends VTdotNET meetings (one of the few people that was actually thrilled to win a TechNet subscription at our recent VS2008/Windows Server 2008 launch event). He told me that based on what I was seeing, I should probably just get a new computer and in the meantime, go to Radio Shack and buy a hard drive enclosure for my drive so I could plug it into my computer and get back to work.

That was a great idea and would mean I didn't have to wait until Monday or Tuesday.

But since it was still early and I was a bit overwhelmed, I skipped a step that I would normally have taken. I did not call ahead to ensure that Radio Shack or any of the other local geek stores had what I needed. I drove to the Radio Shack (45 minutes away) and guess what? They didn't have any enclosures, much less one for an SATA drive which is what I needed. The guy there called the other local Radio Shack and told me they had one. So I drove there and it was waiting for me on the counter. Yay. Kind of. I was so excited, I didn't look very closely at it and did not realize until I got home that it was not an SATA drive. My fault, but argh.

I found that the local Apple Dealer, Small Dog Electronics, had enclosures on their website so I called their Burlington store thinking I could avoid another trip and have my husband pick it up on the way home. But alas, no cases there. However, they had 6 of them (3.5" SATA, just what I needed) at their other store. That store is actually closer to my house, though I have to drive up and over a mountain to get there. Which is what I did. I contemplated riding my bike since I have been trying to accomplish riding to the top of that same mountain this summer, but it would have been too much to bear if I couldn't make it.

The absolutely best part of my day was meeting Pumpkin, one of the many resident dogs at Small Dog, who is just the sweetest Golden Retriever (okay they're all sweet but she was really really sweet) who I sat on the floor with and petted while I waited for the case to arrive from the warehouse. And yes, she had the ball just like in the picture.

I got home with the new case and within minutes had my drive working beautifully as an external drive for my laptop.

Of course now it's 10 hours later, I've done no work today and I'm still thinking about that bike ride.

Given that I live in the boonies and that my hard drives are some of my most precious assets, I'm thinking of getting a few more cases to stick in the closet for my other drives. Just in case.