Hello, World a/k/a There's an XKCD for that

[lydy]

Remember this one:




Yep, that's me.

So, I wanted a word processing program. Libreoffice is supposed to be quite good, and I decided that would be a good choice. It, however, doesn't talk to any OS lower than OS S 10.8. I was running 10.7.5. Ok, then. There's a free upgrade to something called Yosemite, which is 10.10

Now follows the tale of why I can't have nice things.

I downloaded it. I ran the installer. The installer, after a fairly long period of time, tells me that it can't install, so sorry, would I like to resume my old OS. I tell it yes. It tells me that it cannot get enough data from the old disk in order to do this. It offers to install Yosemite, again. Again I permit it to do so. Again it fails, again it offers to restore me to 10.7.5, again it fails. And I cannot get out of this loop. The only two options are to install Yosemite, which it can't do, or revert to 10.7.5, which it also can't do.

Some smart person just about now is going to ask me, solicitously, if I remembered to back up my hard drive, first. Shut up, I explain.

So, then I panicked. Like I do. I took my beloved MacBook Pro to the closest Apple store, even though I knew there were no appointments available. I look really pitiful, they send me to a table to wait, and tell me if there are any no-shows, they will take me. I don't wait that long.

I am in a state of panic. That's my excuse. Honestly, it's all I've got, ok? The nice not really a genius person comes over and we have a discussion I don't remember all of. The gist is that I probably have something bad with my disk, and maybe we could replace it but maybe we don't have to, but we do have to erase it, and do I have a back up. No, I do not. Do I want to just lose all my data. After saying that I did, I changed my mind and said that I didn't, and he sells me an external drive. He tells me to copy the folders, one by one, to the external drive. I do this. Please understand, I don't really know what I'm doing. I really don't know.

Then he erases my hard drive, and installs Yosemite on it. I go home.

I boot up my computer, start putting the files back on. And I discover exactly what I have actually lost. Huge, huge amounts of stuff. Ten years of IM conversations with Patrick. All my preferences, bookmarks, and settings for all my applications. I knew I was losing my applications, but I figured that I'd just reinstall them. I hadn't really thought about all the cruft that I've carefully ported from machine to machine to machine via Migration Assistant. So many things. Some large number of years of email before I converted to IMAP but after I changed to Thunderbird. I wail and moan and become exceedingly upset. David becomes aware of what, exactly, I've done.

Then there's some discussion. He says that the symptoms I'm reporting and the things that the people at the Apple store said indicated that my drive is going bad, and it makes absolutely no sense to go on with a drive that is failing. Sooner or later, it'll go, and it makes sense, given the price of drives, to simply replace it. He also says that possibly I can recover some of the data I've lost on the old drive when I let the not-so-genius erase it, but I've got to stop doing things to it, right now. There's a discussion about what I have done and should not have done. I end up feeling even more panicky and vastly more stupid than I had been feeling, and honestly, I was feeling pretty fucking stupid.

(There was also a brief interlude where, to wind down, we were watching television, and DDB wanted me to play with the new Chromecast thingy on the television. I installed the app on my phone, but then various things went wrong, sometimes because I didn't understand his instructions, sometimes because my phone doesn't work like his, sometimes for reasons I don't understand. I had a major, hysterical meltdown, screaming, "No more computers, do you hear me? No more. None of them. I am not doing this. Not doing this. Are we clear? No more computers!" David said,"You're hysterical." "Yes! Yes I am!" I screamed back. "I am hysterical and there will be No More Computers. I'm done!")

So, today we bought a new drive for my computer, and DDB installed it. We went back to the Apple store (this time with an appointment) and they put Yosemite on as the OS. I have copied the files from the external drive that I bought yesterday to my new internal drive, wiped the external, and reconstituted it as my back up drive. I then did a back up. We'll see what we can recover from the old drive, but at best it will be some pretty raw files. I'll never get my preferences back. I might get my bookmarks back, but maybe not. I have some small hopes for my chat logs and my keychain, but not high ones.

This is known as So Unhappy Now.

So, there's everything to do, again. All my daily life apps to set up again, a new OS to adjust to, and so on. But at least I'm not using David's fucking PC laptop (which also sent me into screaming fits, but that's another story.)

I'm just hoping I get to land before the sharks eat me.

Comments

[naomikritzer]

I love that xkcd because I am so very familiar with the phenomenon it describes.

Lyda Morehouse has destroyed a number of laptop computers, most memorably the time she put her laptop on the floor of her car, and a large frozen turkey in the passenger seat, and when she stopped at a light, the turkey rolled off the seat onto the laptop. After one catastrophe, when she lost something like 20,000 words of a novel, she installed Crashplan on her computer, and the next time she had a disaster, everything was restored. I absolutely suck at making backups, and always have. I mean, I do make them, of works-in-progress, but not with any sort of discipline. After several years of Lyda periodically nagging me about it I got Crashplan, too. I have not yet had cause to test it out, however. (Knock wood.)

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey. How completely horrible.

I know what you mean about the Migration Assistant. I was determined to install everything from scratch this last time I set up a new computer, only to realize I have no idea where I've filed all the programs I've downloaded from the internet, all the upgrades that may or may not require an earlier version to be installed first, etc. etc. I don't even know all the programs I use until one of them doesn't work. So instead, I use Migration Assistant and end up with programs dating back to OS9 and before, things that haven't worked in years. But when I then tried to uninstall, oh, say, Creative Suite 3, suddenly error messages are showing up in CS6 Photoshop. We are all doomed.

The laptop I'm moving to -- the laptop and OS I'm at oh, so long last giving up Eudora for -- is currently at the Apple Genius Bar getting a new logic board. New processor, new graphics card, all because its USB ports were loosey-goosey so devices plugged into them were prone to losing their connection. They promise it back by Friday, maybe sooner. I sure hope the new board functions as it's supposed to. If it doesn't, my life will quickly become a living hell. So, yeah. Computers. Why did it have to be computers?

We Will Not Speak of the Eudora-to-Mail transition.

All to say, you're not alone in the shark-infested waters. And you will get through to shore.

[faunhaert.livejournal.com]

hate, Hate, HATE
when that happens

it just makes me gloomy
after i explode

it'll be ok now
i hope

[papersky.livejournal.com]

And that's why I decided after my old netbook was stolen in Brussels, that I was going to take feudal oath to Google and install Chrome. Because when I borrowed Eddy's laptop, bless him, and logged in to Gmail, everything was there just like it ought to be, and I actually cried because it was, because it keeps all my preferences and chatlogs and email and music in the empyrean, and if I used Chrome they'd keep the rest of my internet stuff there too.

Like those guys in shark infested waters, I am running Linux. And I have a friend who is very very good with Linux, but unfortunately he is in Texas.

There are people who like new shiny changes, and there are people who want the stuff they have to keep working the same way. There are people who want hobbies of fiddling around with tech, and there are people who just want their stuff to keep working. That you and I are the second klind does not make us stupid.

I hope you can get your stuff back.

[ckd]

There are people who like new shiny changes, and there are people who want the stuff they have to keep working the same way. There are people who want hobbies of fiddling around with tech, and there are people who just want their stuff to keep working.

There are even those of us who fall into both camps; for example, I tend to upgrade the OS on my iPad to a new major version fairly quickly so I can get the shiny new stuff, but my phone doesn't move until the new major version's had a few weeks to shake out and, probably, at least one bugfix release.

That's because the iPad is something I can manage without when it breaks horribly; the phone isn't.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

For everyday use by a non-nerd, you're fine. My personal rule of thumb is that less than three copies is no copies.
Back up your Google-cloud somewhere else entirely. It doesn't have to be as convenient or up to the second, but if Google went down for a week or three you wouldn't be high and dry.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

I fiddle around with tech for money. I do not much like doing it in my spare time. In my spare time I'd like it if things just work.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

ow

[soon_lee]

Oh dear. My sympathies.

[boxofdelights]

*sympathy*

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

One minor correction -- I did not say "You're hysterical." Lydy brought that into the conversation all by herself.

I did not, however, disagree with her.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I do love how calm you are when I completely lose my shit. It's an anchor in stormy seas. But honestly, you could have predicted that Chromecast was likely to give me the screaming mimis. Ok maybe not. I, however, could have predicted it if I was using my brain. Which was kind of on vacation by that time.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

What a ghastly mess. I am so sorry to hear it. Now I will go back up my hard drive.

K.

[ctein3.livejournal.com]

Dear Folks,

Since our host is going mad getting ready for Minicon, thought I'd post an update.

I've recovered everything that was on Lydy's old drive and am awaiting arrival of another external HD so I can send it back to her (I am not going to send 250 GB thru the ether, thankyewverrymush).

99% of the files came back fine (DDB was right-- there are some failing blocks). Some of the older stuff may take some work to figure out what file format it really is (e.g., jpgs that won't open because they seem to not be jpgs), but that's just an old-file problem; the stuff would've behaved the same way had Lydy every accessed it before the drive got munched.

Which is also a lesson for people-- periodically try opening some of your oldest stuff. File formats change, apps become incompatible. It's a lot less aggravating to catch this BEFORE you need something *right now*.

pax / Ctein