Lost Files

I was having problems with the old XP desktop computer I had in my study.  So I decided to wipe the drive and reinstall the XP operating system.  It took quite a while to go through the set up routine and then when i went to activate XP I found out that Microsoft had taken down the servers they used for activation.  So I couldn't use XP any more.  I decided to install Linux on the old computer.  I found that the computer was so old you couldn't boot from a memory stick.  I had to make a boot CD.  I went out and bought two CDs.  Then when I looked for a Linux distribution and I found that it was slightly too big to fit on the 750 Mb CD.  I then found a minimal Linux distribution that was only 48 Mb.  So it definitely fit on a 750 Mb CD.  I installed Linux on the computer.

Later I was thinking about my old family diary files and remembered that I had saved them on 3 1/2 inch floppy disks and the only computer I had that read those disks was my old desktop computer.  I had copied all the disks on to the computer and then I had given a whole box of 3 1/2 inch floppies to Best Buy for recycling.  I panicked thinking that I had lost all of the files.

I searched all my files on my laptop hard drive and my external hard drives and couldn't find the diary files.  Then I looked at all my memory sticks and found the diary files on one of them.  I guess I had backed up the old XP hard drive on one of my memory sticks before I wiped the drive.  I was so happy.  Then I backed up the diary files all over the place after that.