Apple saves my life
I don’t normally write fanboy stuff about… well… anything – certainly not about computers – but after my latest computer disaster I have to say I have a much clearer idea of why I like Apple’s… pretty much everything.
I had a RAID array inside my current Mac desktop. It contained my video projects, music collection and other downloads. Too big to back up, re-downloadable or re-rippable, I excluded it from my back up.
One of the mechanisms in the level 0 array died, rendering all of it useless.
In the desperate hope that the failure was related to an ill-fated software upgrade, I decided to upgrade to the latest version of the operating system, Snow Leopard.
The installer wouldn’t let me. It said my main disk was damaged. Couldn’t reboot from it. Couldn’t repair it.
So far not much of a fan boy tale, no?
The adulatory part comes in when they get me out of it.
I noticed that the install DVD couldn’t install on my damaged drive, but it could mount it. So I went out and got myself a standard SATA disk at PCCyber (the days when every connector, card, and chip Apple used was unique to their product are gone) slammed it into the no-cable, no power connector mounting system in my desktop.
I figured I’d install OS X on that, reboot and see what I could salvage. But it still would mean missing serial numbers, passwords, encryption keys, etc etc. Hours of work to restore to ‘normal’. Oh well, better than losing 12 years of digital photos.
But a funny thing happened after the install completed. I got an option to copy over data from my old, damaged disk. Data, settings, everything. It took three hours – there was a Terabyte of data to think about – but it did it.
And when it rebooted I had my computer back. I’m letting DiskWarrior try to fix my ailing drive but if it can’t I will try reformatting it. They’re $90 these days so if it’s dead, it’s dead. Suddenly, it’s no big whoop.
Everything was clean and easy about the restore. Nothing made me feel confused. Never did I feel like I was being led down some unfamiliar path. No dire warnings, obscure warnings or labels.
But I was still out my music library. I could re-rip my CDs or get them from the SlimServer, but I have, over the years, bought music from the iTunes store and never either MP3ed it or backed it up.
A google told me two things:
- Apple won’t let you re-download your music because they pay the record companies for the download
- If you plead with them, sometimes they’ll give you a break.
So I set up tech support call with Apple. They referred me to the iTunes email only support system. Normally for something big like this, I shudder at the concept of email support. But, since there was no technical information exchange required – merely a begging sort of exchange – I figured it would be okay.
Maybe an hour after I sent my sob story to Apple I had my answer. 997 new downloads waiting for me and a kind, but stern, admonition to make sure this never happened again.
So now I have the irretrievable stuff back. And the other stuff, well I can restore from tape, or find it again. And if I’ve already watched it, what are the chances I want to watch it again? If I haven’t watched it yet, there’s probably a good reason.
I am at peace now, though I still have work to do.
I’ve been using Macs since the Mac SE and Aldus Pagemaker revolutionized print publishing in 1987. At the time they were the only game in town. But even after PCs caught up and I caught my first design-involved gig with a PC (in 1990) I still preferred the Mac.
For a long time, the common sense wisdom of “the best computer is the one you know how to use” has kept me here, despite there being years when Macs were more expensive and quite limited in what they could do.
Now I’d have to say that my platform agnosticism is waning.
