Something new for your blogger
There was a bit of a tragedy in the Apple household this weekend. My trusty Mac iBook G4 died.
And a nasty death it was. The motherboard went out abruptly. The computer itself is more than five years old — you might recall that some of you kindly donated to buy it for VizEds — but I put a new hard drive, RAM and motherboard in it two years ago. I had hoped it would hang on a little longer. But no such luck.
As a result, I’m typing to you today on a brand new MacBook Pro:
I’ve spent all day configuring, loading my applications and trying to remember my dozens and dozens of passwords.
I managed to back up most of my data onto an external drive, but then that went down this morning around 1:30 a.m. this morning, causing me to panic. No problem, though — the folks at the Genius Bar today kick-started the external drive. I’m downloading literally thousands of pages, graphics and slideshows in the picture above.
The Genius Bar guys also showed me how to scrape off the data I didn’t manage to retrieve — basically, my e-mail archive, my iTunes library and a boatload of fonts. That’s what I’m trying to do in this photo:
However, it didn’t work. Not only did my trusty old road warrior not cough up the data, it actually ground to a complete halt. I can’t even boot it now.
I’ll miss a few of the fonts and some of the info from the e-mail. But all the important stuff was saved. I’m grateful for that. And my iTunes library was extensive, but reloading it all will be merely a distraction. At least it’s nothing important.
I’m having a little trouble getting my e-mail flowing on the new MacBook. So if I’m a little slow in replying, please understand.
In the meantime, I’d like to offer a hearty thanks to Michael Lee, manager of the Apple Store in downtown Norfolk. His crew fixed me up very, very well this morning.
So a new MacBook. Very cool. Now, let’s find me a job so I can pay for it…
July 6th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Kudos!
July 6th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Good luck with your brand new mac, Charles. It ended quite well, didn’t it?
I’m still using my old white Mac Ibook G4. Guess it’s six years old, at least :-)
July 6th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Keep it backed up, Anders!
:)
July 6th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
I made a similar upgrade and had similar issues back when I upgraded in January with regards to transfer. I found it was easier to just copy everything over without using that process.
But I will say this much. I bought it right after I got laid off. Very tough purchase to make. But wow. It was totally worth it. :)
This trick in Firefox 3.5, which you can now do with that wonderful trackpad, will make your life so much easier, Charles: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/06/30/be-still-my-heart-multi-touch-tab-switching-in-firefox/
July 6th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I have one of the first non-toilet-seat-looking iBook G3s. It’s long in the tooth (2001)… so I feel your pain. Target disk mode is a beautiful thing, and with my desktop Mac and a 160GB FireWire drive for backup, I feel a little more secure. But just a little, because nothing’s ever really bulletproof.
July 7th, 2009 at 6:37 am
I just upgraded a few months ago from my 5yr old iBook G4 to an iMac. I had a heck of a time with the migration tool and ended up just transferring my files manually. I do miss using my iBook as my main machine though. I kinda feel like I’m cheating on it at time. :)
July 7th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Charles:
Hang in there, my back up was a dell, until a new paycheck comes in and I’m in front of a beloved Mac.
Again, you show the importance of backing up information and a good reminder I better get to it.
July 7th, 2009 at 8:12 am
What’s a mac?
August 22nd, 2009 at 9:12 am
As I read this, nearly two months later, I should add: I did manage, finally, to save MOST of my iTunes library. I missed only about 50 songs. Out of more than 7,000.
And apparently, the backup copied the songs in order of how many times I’ve listened to them. So the 50 songs were ones I had never, ever listened to via my computer or my iPod.
In the end, the only thing I lost were: 1) Fonts, which I was able to reload from folders I had backed up on CDs, and 2) Hundreds and hundreds of e-mails. I had never thought to back up my e-mail in-baskets. Which is a pain. But livable.
The new machine is gorgeous. And fast. And the battery lasts a long, LONG time.
The only real downside: I really didn’t need this kind of expense this summer.