Go Backup Now
October 11, 2007
Stop reading this post - right now. Stop. Get out your FireWire cord, your external hard drive, and start up whatever backup program you use. Back up your computer right now.
I’m pissed. I was just putting the final touches on a very nice, lengthy handout for my workshop at the Presbymergent Conference, when all of a sudden, my iTunes song skipped - and then my computer slowed down a bit - and then it froze. I had to do a hard restart - and when I did, it started up with that pretty Mac sound, but then I could hear a very faint ticking from the right side of the keyboard (I’m guessing that’s where the hard drive is?) - and then I saw an icon of an empty folder with a question mark in it - and it just flashed at me (if anyone has ANY idea of what that is - please email or call me - six-zero-nine, nine-three-three, four-thousand).
So - now I need to take my computer to an Apple store in Pittsburgh tomorrow - perhaps they can work some magic, but I’m resigned to the fact that I’ll have to ship it off. I backed up maybe two weeks ago - but that’s not recent enough for someone who uses their computer as much as I do (and for someone who runs a business with his computer).
I hate these things. I hate that it causes me so much inconvenience. I hate that I live a life that can be so inconvenienced by a computer crashing. Ugh.
Update
So - the hard drive was fried. My computer is being sent to the depot to get a new hard drive. It’s a little depressing. So I’ll be without my computer for a few more days - maybe up to a week.
Tags: Apple, Computer
Posted in Technology ShareThis
Adam Walker Cleaveland: I am a 28 yr old 
October 12th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Adam, this just happened to me. my first question is do you have apple care?
my second question is do you still have your start up disk? Apple Care people had me reboot my computer with the startup disk (make sure the disk is super clean), and instead of pure re-install, do a re-install with archive (its an option).
I recommend walking through this with the apple care people, but this worked for me.
*note: i lost everything because my disk was dirty on the reinstall, but when i then rebooted everything with the startup disk (clean now) i was good to go (and 8 hours later back up and running with all my programs).
October 12th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Adam, this is indeed a sad problem. I can suggest a few things as a lifelong mac user. I take it this is your mac book. . .
Try Zapping the PRAM
“Zapping PRAM is simple, just reboot your Mac and hold down “Command(the Apple key)+Option(the Alt key)+P+R” while it is booting, when you hear the startup sound for the seond time the operation is complete, and you can release the key combination. Now just let your Mac boot as normal.”
If that doesn’t work, remove your macbook battery. . leave it out for 5 minutes, then plug the macbook in (keep the battery out) and start it up just plugged in to the power, no battery.
Let me know if either of those dont work. . .
October 12th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Hey Adam,
my wife’s ibook just crapped out on us this month as well, and yes, that ticking you are hearing is indeed a dying hard drive. I’ll assume you still have an applecare policy on her (she’s fairly new, isn’t she?) - and taking her to the mac store will probably be your best bet.
Til then, though, if you plug a firewire cord into yours and then another apple computer, and hold down ‘T’ (i think it was T… we were following instructions in the manual) as you reboot your fried computer, it will start up as an external hard drive. You can then backup all the important stuff onto the other computer and be ready for the (sounds like) imminent need to re-install your OS on a new hard drive.
October 12th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
sucks man..i feel your pain..
Cobian Backup just went open-source:
http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm
a good way to set backups to other drives, etc., or my fav feature to a off-site ftp server..
hope the techs can work some magic..
mark
October 12th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
this happened to my pretty new black macbook this summer. I took it in and they replaced the hard drive. But i still lost documents and a ton of pictures.
October 12th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
it was only last week that i finally got terrified of losing all my data, or even the hassle of losing it all so i raided to 500gb drives together….now i sleep every night peacefully.
October 16th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
oh…you crazy MAC people with your funny little icons….get a real computer….lol