Glum, glum, glum

So, I used to have three FireWire portable hard drives, that held all of my "media"- TV, pictures, et cetera. I say "used to" because they all spontaneously decided to stop working this afternoon. Two of them can be coaxed into working using a different kind of connection (USB 2.0). The one that I can't make work is the one that happens to have all the stuff with real sentimental value on it. I tried hooking it up to other computers, but it seems pretty enthusiastically dead- whatever happened to them all seems to have screwed up the FireWire firmware, and it doesn't have a USB port.

Dammit.

I am saddened by this out of all proportion to what the situation merits.

ETA: So it turns out the FireWire "drive" is a FireWire enclosure surrounding a standard Hitachi IDE/ATA/I-don't-care-but-it-works-with-my-stuff hard drive. I am one enclosure short, but I was able to begin the process of backing up stuff I decided I couldn't live without. I still have no idea what about the FireWire situation is hosed- my controller card? the "bridge" in the portable drives?- and the more I think about it the more perplexed and creeped out I am. I mean, we hooked them up to another computer and they still wouldn't play along. All three at once. In any case, I need no longer fear the loss of old letters from people who don't speak to me anymore. Of which, it seems, there are way too many. There's some kind of lesson in that, but I am very, very tired.