Once within a server dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over backups, logs, and folders I had trusted long before,
Came a clicking, faintly tapping, like some tiny demon rapping,
Rapping from the drive bay’s darkness, whispering of things in store.
“’Tis a cable,” then I muttered, “loose behind the chassis door.”
Only this, and nothing more.
Yet the volume mounted never, though I begged with grim endeavor,
Though I ran the sacred commands I had often run before.fsck cried out in broken meter, SMART grew colder, death grew sweeter,
Every sector turned a traitor, every block a bolted door.
Then the kernel, pale and mocking, carved my doom into its lore:
“Unknown error. Read no more.”
Deep into that disk I glowered, as the midnight slowly soured,
Dreaming dreams of lost directories vanished from the spinning core.
Photos, scripts, and ancient writing, tax returns and memes delighting,
All entombed in silent platters I may nevermore restore.
Then my soul cried, “Can I save them?”
Quoth the syslog: “Nevermore.”
With Apologies to the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe.
