Don’t Fear The Hard Drive

I work in maintenance at a very nice community college. My job includes installing and removing keyboard trays, assembling desks, hanging photos in offices, etc.

I’m headed down a hallway to a teacher’s office when one of the IT guys comes out of the office I’m headed to, shaking his head.

Me: “What’s up, [Coworker]?”

Coworker: “[Teacher] called down to IT complaining that her computer was making a strange noise every time she tried to save something, so she had to shut it down to prevent any damage to it.”

Me: “What was it doing?”

Coworker: “She showed me! She would get a document ready to save, but when she clicked on ‘Save’, her hard drive would activate, making that humming, clattering noise that hard drives make, so she would freak out and force a cold boot — hold the power switch until the computer shuts off. That, of course, made her lose the document and have to wait for her machine to boot up again.”

I was incredulous, my mouth agape.

Me: “So, what did you tell her?”

Coworker: “To stop doing that!”

He turns away, shaking his head again.

Coworker: “These people are teaching our kids — at college!”