Lightning Strikes a Second Time
A year ago (actually, EXACTLY a year ago) my computer hard drive died. I was in the midst of writing my final papers and getting ready to study for exams. I lost lots of time at the Apple Store (both in King of Prussia, PA and in Delaware). We finally were able to recover a few files (including, amazingly, my papers) and I limped along through the end of the semester with a replacement computer while my own laptop had its hard drive replaced.
This morning, my first day back for classes (after being in Maine for a month), as I am sitting in the library getting ready to write my papers and preparing for exams, I started to get repeated Kernel panic messages. Needless to say, if my computer is panicking, then I am also. A frantic call to the Apple Genius bar confirmed my fear… they must take a look, it is probably a hardware issue. This is major déjà vu. I started to remember last year… the hours lost to driving around trying to recover my computer. The days lost for studying and working on my papers. The knot in the pit of my stomach.
Still, at least this time I did not waste any time. Off to the Apple store. They decided that it is probably my logic board and will need to keep my computer while they order the part and repair it. At least I did not lose any files! I was able to backup my semester work (and the new baby pictures!!) to my iPod.
After 5 hours, I am back in my favorite study place in the library. I’ll just have to be really productive as I work over the next few days! Thankfully, it was only 5 hours. I will probably have to make one more trip to King of Prussia before exams to pick the laptop up after it is repaired, but hopefully I can schedule that to fit into my study schedule.
I can now officially say that I am the poster child for backing up your computer (especially at the end of a semester of work and right before papers are due!). Stop what you are doing, email yourself your papers (I send my papers to my google mail account regularly), backup photos (this time I didn’t lose the new baby pictures, but last year I did permanently lose some photo files), write down passwords (or save a preferences/keychain file), and archive documents that you must keep.
Ah, it is good to be home!
10:30 PM UPDATE: Well, I spoke too soon. During the afternoon (not two hours after returning home from the Apple Store), the replacement computer that I am using started to exhibit Kernel Panic also. This necessitated another trip to King of Prussia and a Genius Bar visit to fix the replacement laptop. I brought along some study material to at least redeem the waiting time! Hopefully things will continue to work so that I can finish my papers this week.
May 2nd, 2006 at 10:45 am
Karyn: Time for you to be doing regular backups with Super Duper and an external HD [preferably a FireWire one].
May 2nd, 2006 at 11:05 am
Geof,
I do have an external HD (with a FireWire) and I do do regular backups. The issue this time around was I had just returned from being in Maine. The most difficult thing right now is that I don’t have the time to deal with resetting preferences, setting up new printers etc. Some software needs to be reinstalled and reconfigured. It all just takes too much time right now.
I’ll look at Super Duper and compare it to what I use now. Thanks.
May 2nd, 2006 at 11:44 am
SD is pretty much the only backup package worth futzing with. It handles not only the data but the metadata and permissions, which is crucial in making a workable OS X backup.
The timing stinks for you, though.
May 4th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
I thought macs were indescructable! Oh no! I cannot believe that this keeps happening to you…what is God trying to tell you?? I think I would just go completely limp…but somehow you manage to keep on fighting through!
September 9th, 2006 at 2:06 am
Macs are indestructible…
Uh-huh.
And all the PCs were going to impode on Jan, 1 2000. I still remember the humorous stickers at UVa that were on all the computers with one of two checkboxes dutifully checked:
_____ This computer has been successfully innoculated against the Y2K bug
_____ This computer is a Mac and is therefore immune to the Y2K bug
People really believe interesting things… and often spend insane amount of money and time in persuit of them.
September 9th, 2006 at 2:08 am
Sorry for the mispellings above…
September 9th, 2006 at 11:00 am
Actually, Merrick, despite these glitches in my computer experience I would still highly recommend a Mac over a PC. Compared to the trouble that my friends have with their PCs, the Mac really is more stable and handles certain things (I think) better. Good to hear from you!
September 13th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Hi Karyn,
Good to talk to you too… sort of. I am desperately delinquent on a life update for you and Mark that I’ve promised to take care of. In VERY brief: we did Marcy, Skylight, and Gray about a month back, but it rained enough to convince us to hike back out to the Garden from Slant Rock instead of attempting Haystack, Basin, and Saddleback the next day. We didn’t get to head up last year because Kristy was writing up, so trip 3 got us to 15. We’re planning another quick trip up for the Coumbus Day weekend.
Oh, and you haven’t met Elrond and Elros…
September 13th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
Again with the unclear communications…
The “sort of” refers back to “talking” and not about whether it was good to be doing so!