Back in the land of a working computer
Well, that was interesting, but I’m glad it’s all over. After a couple of days of upheaval and camping out on Mr. Bsag’s computer, trying to find files or applications I needed, I’m finally back on my own, working computer.
I’ve learned a few lessons:
- Do not trust the hard drive S.M.A.R.T. status — in my case, it was gaily saying everything was fine (la la la) until the second it wasn’t and my hard drive failed.
- Backups are good. Frequent backups are even better. It’s only when you find that your last backup is 48 hours old that you realise that you actually do get quite a lot done each day, and that you’ve now lost that last 48 hours of work. I was very fortunate and only lost a few emails.
- Web applications really come into their own when you lose your files. I still had access to my calendar, some of my email from another computer when mine broke. Of course, the opposite is true when your internet connection goes down…
- Apple’s Migration Assistant is actually rather good. I haven’t used it before, but faced with many gigabytes of data to somehow shift onto a fresh system without wiping out default files, preferences and so on, I thought I’d give it a go. After all, I still had my backup, so if it went wrong, I could just reinstall and start again. It was very easy, and as far as I can make out, almost everything transferred smoothly, even my custom installed applications in /usr/local. Mysql seems to be broken, but that’s not too bad. I’m also glad that my backups are just plain filesystems now, rather than some obscure catalogue format, which you have to restore using a backup application. I just had to plug in the firewire drive, point Migration Assistant at my full back up, and go.
I’m so reliant on a computer for work and personal stuff, and have my computing environment so customised to my habits, that it’s amazingly disruptive to be without my own computer. The sooner I get multiple computers and easily sync-able files sorted out, the better.
1
C'mon 'fess up! Make me jealous! What is your new iron?
by ThoughtBadger @ 22/03/2007 9:32 pm • Permalink •
2
Repeat after me...
svnX is your freind. svnX is your freind.
Honestly, I have all of my work stuff under SVN control, and I tend to update it quite often... Or you can wait till leopard.
by Tsykoduk @ 23/03/2007 1:37 am • Permalink •
3
I just went out and bought an external hard drive...........
by Jonathan Briggs @ 24/03/2007 12:32 pm • Permalink •
4
I'm just copying to the external drive that I've neglected to use for a few months. Keeping it in a secure place away from the main system (as advised!) is great - unless you keep forgetting to use it.
by Julian @ 25/03/2007 11:11 am • Permalink •
5
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by sergiu @ 20/11/2007 1:06 pm • Permalink •
6
I think that backups are vital....in using the computer...i lost once a hole months work so i learned my lesson
by helpdesk @ 12/12/2007 7:01 pm • Permalink •
7
I am new in this domain and I found some good stuf in here
by motor de cautare @ 23/12/2007 7:07 pm • Permalink •
8
Keeping it in a secure place away from the main system (as advised!) is great - unless you keep forgetting to use it.
by automotive repair manual @ 10/01/2008 11:28 pm • Permalink •
9
I just copying to the external drive that I've neglected to use for a few months. Keeping it in a secure place away from the main system is great - unless you keep forgetting to use it.
by Golf cart @ 01/04/2008 10:48 am • Permalink •
10
I think backup are very important. Need to get a backup hard disk.
by Gothic Forum @ 04/04/2008 8:19 pm • Permalink •
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