My laptop recently died and I learned a valuable expensive lesson. I didn’t have an external hard drive and wasn’t backing up any of my data; pictures, music, documents, videos, etc. My computer was five years old and the motherboard died. I called a local computer shop and was ecstatic when they told me they could get my data back. They said the cost would depend on how long it took to get the data back. They guessed it would take two hours and cost $50. They said they could also dispose of my laptop for me when the data transfer was complete for a $10 fee.

I thought $60 was a reasonable amount to get five years worth of data back and to dispose of my laptop so I agreed to their terms and signed on the dotted line.