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Extreme fixing?
Jun. 3rd, 2009 08:29 amYesterday I went to the Apple Store at the mall (the redesign that had them closed for over a week wasn't as extreme as I imagined; they just removed all the shelving units and put more tables in with laptops and iMacs to play with. Basically it reminds me of the Stonestown Galleria store, but wider) to find out if there was anything the Mac Geniuses could do about the constant AirPort problem I (and plenty of other users, too, judging by the Apple Discussion Forums) I've been having.
Basically, I can't get a legitimate IP address unless I take down the firewall. This tends to happen after I wake the computer from sleep, but not always; sometimes I boot the computer (or restart it) and have the same issue, where I get a self-assigned IP address until I turn the firewall off.
I have tried nearly everything that's been suggested for this problem:
* Turn the AirPort on and off (never works)
* Create separate locations for each WiFi network that I use (worked temporarily)
* Renew the DHCP license (only worked once, I think)
Two things I haven't tried:
* Deleting the SystemConfiguration file for the AirPort. This would wipe out all the network settings I have. While it's true I don't travel often, when I do, I'd rather if the Internet just work when I get there, instead of me having to spend time tweaking it to try and get it working (especially if I've already done it in the past and nothing's changed about the network). I could make a backup of the file, but the fact is, this solution hasn't worked for everyone, so it seems a little silly to even bother.
* Doing a "Clean Install" of the entire operating system. This is what the Mac Genius suggested, and I'm beginning to think that every now and again, I get "one of those" Mac Geniuses that thinks Macs are PCs, and if the tiniest thing is wrong, ASPLOSION! MUST REPLACE! MUST REPLACE! There was that one Mac Genius who more or less said that a tiny crack in my casing near the front (by the infrared sensor) could let dust in and cause my hard drive to collapse. Uh, no?
He's probably got a point, though. Problems have been cropping up more often, and while now I know they're not hardware-related (the Genius demonstrated bypassing my OS with a portable hard drive of his own, meaning the hardware is fine), it's not exactly EASY to back everything I have on here up for transfer.
Time Machine is supposed to have a large backup of the entire hard drive plus incremental backups of changes made. I've already reformatted Time Machine once, which means its largest backup doesn't go that far back. My other external hard drive has only 30 GB available (read: not nearly enough to backup my home directory, let alone my other files), and while I'd love to properly format it as an HFS+ drive (it's FAT32 now, I think, because I had it in my head that I wanted to be able to use it with PCs too), I don't have anywhere to put the 150+ GB of data that's already on there.
Then there's my old hard drive, the one I got in its own external case. I haven't really used it. It's not that large, but it could be useful in this procedure, if I end up buckling down and doing it.
Thing is, I want to know EVERYTHING I can backup to get my computer having EVERYTHING where I want/need/remember it. This means:
* Applications (!!! No way in hell am I relying on CDs and emails from digital vendors)
* iPhoto library
* iTunes music (the majority of it is on the external hard drive, but since that disaster a few weeks back, I have yet to restore my whole library. I'd rather get that done before attempting to do this)
* Mac Mail (most of it is IMAP, meaning I won't have to do anything other than set up the accounts again, but I do have some email on my Mac, plus a bunch of Rules)
* Documents - this is what worries me the most, because I have a folder hierarchy reminiscent of my Windows days: not just my Documents folder, but a My Documents folder with a boatload of my work in it!
* Virtual Machine - CANNOT LOSE THIS. MUY MUY MUY IMPORTANTE.
* ??? What else? Anything you can think of?
And how should I best go about getting my data off so that when the Mac Geniuses do a clean install, it's relatively pain free, quick-ish, and easy?
Basically, I can't get a legitimate IP address unless I take down the firewall. This tends to happen after I wake the computer from sleep, but not always; sometimes I boot the computer (or restart it) and have the same issue, where I get a self-assigned IP address until I turn the firewall off.
I have tried nearly everything that's been suggested for this problem:
* Turn the AirPort on and off (never works)
* Create separate locations for each WiFi network that I use (worked temporarily)
* Renew the DHCP license (only worked once, I think)
Two things I haven't tried:
* Deleting the SystemConfiguration file for the AirPort. This would wipe out all the network settings I have. While it's true I don't travel often, when I do, I'd rather if the Internet just work when I get there, instead of me having to spend time tweaking it to try and get it working (especially if I've already done it in the past and nothing's changed about the network). I could make a backup of the file, but the fact is, this solution hasn't worked for everyone, so it seems a little silly to even bother.
* Doing a "Clean Install" of the entire operating system. This is what the Mac Genius suggested, and I'm beginning to think that every now and again, I get "one of those" Mac Geniuses that thinks Macs are PCs, and if the tiniest thing is wrong, ASPLOSION! MUST REPLACE! MUST REPLACE! There was that one Mac Genius who more or less said that a tiny crack in my casing near the front (by the infrared sensor) could let dust in and cause my hard drive to collapse. Uh, no?
He's probably got a point, though. Problems have been cropping up more often, and while now I know they're not hardware-related (the Genius demonstrated bypassing my OS with a portable hard drive of his own, meaning the hardware is fine), it's not exactly EASY to back everything I have on here up for transfer.
Time Machine is supposed to have a large backup of the entire hard drive plus incremental backups of changes made. I've already reformatted Time Machine once, which means its largest backup doesn't go that far back. My other external hard drive has only 30 GB available (read: not nearly enough to backup my home directory, let alone my other files), and while I'd love to properly format it as an HFS+ drive (it's FAT32 now, I think, because I had it in my head that I wanted to be able to use it with PCs too), I don't have anywhere to put the 150+ GB of data that's already on there.
Then there's my old hard drive, the one I got in its own external case. I haven't really used it. It's not that large, but it could be useful in this procedure, if I end up buckling down and doing it.
Thing is, I want to know EVERYTHING I can backup to get my computer having EVERYTHING where I want/need/remember it. This means:
* Applications (!!! No way in hell am I relying on CDs and emails from digital vendors)
* iPhoto library
* iTunes music (the majority of it is on the external hard drive, but since that disaster a few weeks back, I have yet to restore my whole library. I'd rather get that done before attempting to do this)
* Mac Mail (most of it is IMAP, meaning I won't have to do anything other than set up the accounts again, but I do have some email on my Mac, plus a bunch of Rules)
* Documents - this is what worries me the most, because I have a folder hierarchy reminiscent of my Windows days: not just my Documents folder, but a My Documents folder with a boatload of my work in it!
* Virtual Machine - CANNOT LOSE THIS. MUY MUY MUY IMPORTANTE.
* ??? What else? Anything you can think of?
And how should I best go about getting my data off so that when the Mac Geniuses do a clean install, it's relatively pain free, quick-ish, and easy?
