Yesterday I received the fright of my life. Opening my laptop, I found that all of my file folders were GONE - not there! We're talking of a good twenty-five years of writing simply vanished.

To back up just a little bit, not long ago I got a new computer. It came with Windows 11. Within this innocent looking device was an evil trap titled OneDrive. I am not all that computer savvy, and it took me three days to set up this laptop. During that time, I do not remember being asked to, or setting up something called OneDrive. I have an external hard drive I use for backing up, so I neither needed it, or wanted it.

Essentially, I do not like my life's work hanging about on the internet, where God alone knows who can snag it at will.

Apparently, however, OneDrive was there, and doing something, so I ignored it. Then came the little notes; 'Your memory is full, you need to upgrade for X amount of money, or you could lose files.'

I never wanted it, I didn't use it, so I ignored it. In my mind, my files were safe within my computer's hard drive. The little red X's next to my file folders were, however, beginning to get on my nerves.

Yesterday the trap sprung, nearly ripping out my heart. I immediately blamed it on myself. Trying to get rid of OneCloud must have pissed off the computer gods, or something.

I wasn't too distressed, as I do have my external hard drive, but I still would have lost a good three months of 'stuff'.

Fortunately, my son is good with computers, and he lives close by. In about half an hour's time, he figured out I had to PAY Microsoft a ransom of ONLY a few dollars, for the memory UPGRADE. I guess calling it that makes this legitimate and not blackmail/extortion.

So, I just wanted to get this warning out there. For now, I shall go back to sipping my coffee, and getting my house back in order.

For the record - Microsoft Windows 11 is horrible. It comes with all sorts of things YOU DO NOT NEED, and so many built in problems it makes you grit your teeth quite frequently. I suppose it is a good thing that some of my teeth or not real. Like good old Jonathon Winters, I have a dog's tooth in there somewhere.

Vixyy