Air Check Salvation
Matt Seinberg

I recently was setting up a new external hard drive to do a backup on the rest of my hard drives, when my main air check hard drive fell about a foot. My heart almost stopped! When I hooked it up again, I heard nothing but a grinding noise that didn't sound very good.

My damaged hard drive went to New Jersey.

The last time I had a hard drive failure, my radio friend Dick Summer recommended a fellow in Pennsylvania that would help me out. Last time he was able to recover almost everything. This time, he couldn't do anything, and he sent my drive off to a data recovery company in New Jersey. He said that repair would most likely cost $700-to-1000, which was certainly money I didn't have.

I did whatt any other enterprising person, especially if they have many radio friends, would do; I set up a Go Fund Page. I shared it on Facebook. I used Facebook Messenger to contact as many people as I could. I also got a write up at allaccess.com, relaying my tale of woe.

The fact is, if I couldn't get my damaged hard drive repaired, Big Apple Airchecks, my website, would cease to exist. I'm good at self-promotion and not afraid to ask friends for help. This time, I not only needed help, I needed money. Let the begging and pleading begin.

I initially set a goal of $700, until I heard from the recovery company that the cost would be over $900. I almost fell on the floor. Even with that, there was no guarantee that any data were recoverable. I had to roll the dice. I took a chance.

I raised the Go Fund Me goal to $1000. Within three days, there was over $1200 in contributions. I was floored, flabbergasted and amazed! The generosity of my friends was staggering. I thanked each one of them, with a personal message. There were even several contributions from people I didn't know, but must have read about my plight in several groups where I posted or from All Access.

Two other friends didn't use Go Fund Me. One sent a check. The other sent cash. The generosity truly overwhelmed me.

Then the bad news arrived.

There was nothing recoverable on the drive. The physical damage to the read heads and the platters was terrible; my hard drive was now as useful as a brick. Money well spent, but down the toilet none the less.

The next phase of recovery began. I posted in my Facebook Air check group for anyone that I had traded with over the years to air checks I may have traded to them. One friend in Florida sent me not only my air checks, but also the air checks he sent me in the trade.

Another friend in Connecticut had some WCBS-FM air checks that I needed replaced, so he sent me a memory stick that not only had those, but other stuff I had sent him years ago as well.

Another friend, in Arkansas, is sending me another memory stick full of air checks. I bought a 128-gig stick and mailed it to him. He should have it filled up and sent back fairly soon.

With the little extra money left over, I bought an extra 8-terabyte hard drive. My plan is to move everything on to it that I currently have on three other hard drives. Then I will have the 5T and 8T doing all the work.

I'm currently in the process of converting many, many cassettes, which had been lost, to digital; it's going to be lifetime job. I have piles of tapes sitting all over that I have to convert, and I have no idea how long it will take. I know there was audio lost I will never recover or hear again.

Then I'll do a cloud back up using Carbonite. I'll never lose anything again. Please take my advice. Back up your data, back it up, again, and back it up yet again. Don't let what happened to me happen to you.

A huge thank you.

Once again, here's a huge thank you to everyone that helped me with my Go Fund Me and enabled Big Apple Airchecks to live! You guys rock and roll!