Crash Goes the Hard Drive

You know, I had a thought all last week gnawing at me, that it had been quite a long time since I last backed up the files on my hard drive (like maybe a year?), and that I really should take care of that sometime soon. So with everything that was going on last week, I decided that I’d get around to it this week. Little did I know that I wasn’t to be allowed to play that waiting game.
On Sunday night, while installing a rather routine Security Update for Mac OS 10.4, my computer got really slow. I mean, R-E-A-L-L-Y S-L-O-W. But I didn’t think much of it, because my computer typically got slow when installing big security updates like that. This time it was extra annoying (when I tried to send an IM to Alex, it took over a minute to type and send a little one-line message … aggravating, to say the least), but I figured it was because I had a bunch of applications open and my normal 5 zillion tabs open in Firefox. So anyway, the update finally finished installing, and it prompted me to restart my computer (again, like normal). Only this time it never made it back to the operating system after the restart. About the third time I heard the start-up chime while I was on the phone with Alex (because IMing was a lost cause while the update was installing), I knew something was wrong.
Here’s what was happening: The computer would restart, go to the light gray screen with the dark apple, but sit there. There wouldn’t even be the rotating progress bar at the bottom, like there normally would be. After hanging on that screen for 5 mintues, it’d auto-restart. Then it’d hang on that same screen for 5 minutes, and the process would repeat itself ad nauseum. Not good. On Monday morning at Walker I looked up how to boot into safe mode, but that produced no change; it still wouldn’t boot at all. I posted to an Apple support forum online and called AppleCare, and tried their suggestion of booting up the OS 10.4 install disc, which I did on Tuesday afternoon (after digging around and finding them at my apartment on Monday night). When I ran Disk Utility like they suggested and tried to “Repair Disk,” by the time it was done trying (and failing) even to scan the drive, it could no longer see any information about my hard drive. Uh oh. Then when I tried to do an archive install, the disc couldn’t even see a volume to which it could install the OS. Double uh oh.
So when the AppleCare rep told me there was an authorized Apple repair shop in State College (Connecting Point, on Allen St downtown, right next to Chili’s), I found out they closed in 20 minutes so I hustled down there right away. They took a look at my old hard drive, tried to access it with their software, and declared it DOA due to mechanical failure. Sigh. At least because I was still covered under AppleCare the new hard drive & installation were completely free. They let me buy back my dead hard drive though, so that I could at least have the option of sending it in to a data recovery service lke Ontrack, which they recommended.
So now I’m considering whether to just sit tight for awhile and move along without my data from the last year, or if I should send it in to Ontrack and pay for a photo-only recovery for $495. For a month’s worth of photos, that wouldn’t be a good deal at all, but with the amount of photos that I hadn’t backed up (again, around a year’s worth, which adds up to at least a couple thousand photos, maybe even three thousand or more), that makes the price a bit more potentially “worth it.” It’s even more worth it when I think of some of the photos that I’d be able to have back, including the last few times I hung out with Aaron, from this summer back to last Christmas break. If I wanted to do a full data recovery, it could be as much as $2500 potentially, but probably more like $1500. I think I can live without my fireworks videos and some other documents in order to save a thousand dollars. My photos are another story though. Those are far more important to me. Important enough for me to put my money toward recovering those, and quite possibly put off the idea of purchasing a new keyboard/electronic piano, or taking a short trip somewhere for spring break or whatnot. Maybe I’ll still be able to afford those things too, we’ll see.
Whilst pondering my data recovery options, I’ve been moving ahead trying to get my computer back up and running with the new hard drive. I bought a copy of OS 10.5 and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac from the Penn State Computer Store and got those installed Wednesday night. I figured there was no time like the present, when I’m basically starting over from scratch, to make an upgrade. And just like on my old hard drive, both Office and my OS are legal! I mean, when the Penn State Computer Store only charges around 50% of retail because of the site license and student license discounts they get, there’s really no excuse not to get legit copies. I’m also gonna make sure I keep a cleaner file structure on my new system than I did on my old one, which was gonna be a real bear to try to clean up and organize better. It’ll still be awhile before I’ve got everything more or less back to the way I want it.
I really didn’t need all this extra stress this week though, not with how stressed out and worn thin I’ve been this week with my research and everything else that’s been going on. But that’s for another post at another time. Right now it’s time for bed, so that I don’t get worn down even more. I’ve got another busy weekend ahead of me after all, what with the “Hate Week” (as Moyer calls it) tailgate and game on Saturday (#3 Penn State hosts hapless and hated Michigan … I hope we hang half a hundred on the Wolverines on Saturday, I really can’t stand them, even when they’re terrible like they are this year). I gotta make sure I’m all rested up for that!
GO STATE! BEAT MICHIGAN!