What to do when your laptop crashes

Monday, October 31, 2016.

Halloween.

While some people were out getting scared by monsters and masks, I fell victim to a crashed laptop.

Fortunately (or rather, unfortunately), this wasn’t my first time dealing with a crashed laptop. This was my fifth incident since the fall of 2014, so at this point, I’m a pro.

For those of you who are not as lucky as myself, you might not know what to do when your laptop crashes, so I’m here to impart some wisdom.

1. Figure out where to go to get it repaired

If you have a Mac like I do, go to The Place in downtown Bowling Green. They’re super nice and helpful, and it’s much more convenient than driving down to Nashville to get to the nearest Apple Store. If you have a PC, contact the IT Helpdesk by calling them at (270) 745-7000. They should be able to point you in the right direction depending on what your issue is.

2. Rent a laptop

You can rent a laptop on the second floor of Mass Media and Technology Hall. They weigh about half a ton, but it’s a free service and gets the job done while you’re waiting for your laptop to be repaired.

I may or may not have rented one solely for the purpose of watching Netflix over the weekend, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

3. Get comfortable in the library

If renting a laptop isn’t really your style, prepare to get familiar with your favorite campus computer lab. I don’t like doing homework in my dorm, so whenever my laptop crashes I camp out on the fourth floor of Cravens Graduate Center and Library. It’s a lot quieter than Mass Media, and it’s a more studious environment. Bring some snacks and a comfortable sweatshirt, and you’re good to go.

4. Get Dropbox

If your laptop has crashed it’s too late to do this, but if it hasn’t, then get Dropbox. You can get a basic account that comes with two gigabytes of storage for free. I’m eternally grateful to my tech-junkie dad for nagging me about installing it because if I hadn’t, I would have definitely failed some classes.

Good luck!