7 years traveling in a backpack across the most rock-strewn corners of the planet! The hard drive belonging to Olivier Peyre holds the world record for mistreatment, dehydration, repeated micro-shocks and improvised free falls. En route avec Aile is the incredible story of a zero-carbon round-the-world trip by bike, sometimes hitching rides on sailboats… sometimes by paraglider. But at the end of the journey, Olivier’s trusty companion (Editor’s note: his hard drive) did not survive the trip. Unless Chronodisk shows up just in time to help them keep going on their way…
This adventure En route avec Aile carried Olivier Peyre (occasionally accompanied by Nadège Perrot) across every road on the globe for no less than 7 years, through the most computer-lethal corners of the planet: Andean and Tibetan highlands in winter, at -33°C on chaotic tracks, the humid, hot oceans of the tropics, the vast deserts of Atacama, the Taklamakan, Australia and beyond. He flies here and there with his paraglider wing, leaving his bike at the bottom of the slopes. But sometimes he also takes the bike under his wing to propel it with the wind across a huge salt lake or even straight into the air, as you can see in his video. Sometimes the bike falls and tumbles down a ravine, putting both the gear and the man through the wringer. In his backpack Olivier carries cameras and a small hard drive, with the goal of preserving in pictures the incredible adventures he was living.
The Click of Death
Eight years and 105,000 km later, the finish line blurs into the starting line. A crowd is there to welcome him. So is the press. He’s pressed with questions, asked to tell what pushed him into the unknown like this. The answer? A childhood dream, more powerful than the fears that keep people at home. The story snowballs. A few media outlets pick it up, he’s invited to TEDx Paris, to universities in Luxembourg, in Paris, in Casablanca. Everything becomes clear. It’s urgent to tell the story, to share it. To spread the message that it’s possible to live your dreams! A crowdfunded book project gets underway (you can, by the way, pre-order the book on his website www.enrouteavecaile.com), then a film project. He gives talks here and there showing photos and videos.
But then! Two weeks ago, he plugs in his hard drive to pull off yet more images. A small noise can be heard. The ‘click of death,’ and that’s when the computer freezes. Access to the hard drive becomes harder and harder. No copying possible. The hard drive dies with a faint, barely perceptible hum of its cylinders. Confident, Olivier goes to get his backup. And within minutes… disaster strikes! The backup doesn’t work. The software had been copying empty folders for a long time — the hard drive had been dying for many months already. Everything seems lost. The documentary film and photo book projects are on the line.
The hard drive first responders to the rescue!
Desperate, and drifting like a lost soul on the wave of the web, he searches for a data recovery company… From forum to forum, from testimonials to guides, through video reports and several press articles, his choice is made! Chronodisk quickly stands out as THE solution to his data recovery problems. He calls them, explains his story, his needs, his limits. Eight years on the road and a year spent writing the book don’t leave him able to cover a bill reflecting the high technical skill required to save his data. Moved by his journey, the Chronodisk team offers to recover his extreme data free of charge. If the data is indeed recovered, despite the serious mechanical failure affecting his hard drive, Olivier will be able to publish his book and his documentary film, share the benefit with others, inspire new callings, or at least raise awareness about non-polluting escape… For the whole Chronodisk team, it’s a source of pride to be part of his adventure, a way of pushing his bike for a few kilometers to give him back the momentum and vitality to keep going on his way…
Here is the video of his return: https://vimeo.com/186209741
When his book is published, Olivier Peyre will be giving away signed copies — follow his Facebook page to stay informed about the next giveaway! Here is the video he created and dedicated these past few days to salute Chronodisk’s support during his digital journey:
Olivier Peyre will know within the coming days whether his data can be recovered; his hard drive is currently undergoing electromechanical organ transplant surgery in the cleanroom…
Here is Olivier Peyre’s website, which we strongly encourage you to check out — a guaranteed change of scenery : www.enrouteavecaile.com
