azurite: (cat: what the shit is this!?)
Yesterday 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?
azurite: (cat and mouse)
Well, it's my last evening in San Francisco, and I feel semi-accomplished. I went to the flasgship (?) Apple Store in downtown San Francisco today, intending to buy a new hard drive for use with Time Machine. I do have Apple's Backup program, but for making a "bootable clone" or something similar of my hard drive, I would need to spend far too much time specifying exactly what "folders" I want copied and to where. I've used Retrospect Express before (which comes with a number of portable hard drives), and I didn't like it-- too clunky and complicated.

Thus, my requirements for a new portable hard drive:
The Duh
* Compatible with Mac OS X 10.5.2
* USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 at the minimum

The Good
* FireWire 800
* Slim and lightweight
* Quiet
* At least 160 GB, which is enough to make a single copy of my entire HD (which is not filled to capacity, mind you) and still have some wiggle room

If only...
* Solid-state format of the HDD
* Less than $200

I'd been leaning toward the Iomega UltraMax 500 GB, which is pretty huge and pretty cheap for the size. One model even comes with FireWire 800, but reviews I've read say it craps out after a few uses, and I don't want to have to deal with that stress. I'd rather put up with something ugly that doesn't break.

The question is, should I be looking at more-expensive, larger-capacity drives, as "preparation" for the future? Or should I just stick with what I need, which is basically something to backup all my important stuff (music, photos, applications, websites, documents) quickly and easily, in case my HD needs to get reformatted?

All this pretty much came into play when I tried to play a CD (brand new), found out my Super Drive just may be crapping out on me but it's covered under warranty, which means I can send it away to get "fixed." If I do that, it'll be an agonizing X amount of time without my laptop, but it's worth it to get a better-working Super Drive. The Apple warranty explanation page says, "expect to get your HD reformatted." As if that's logical for every repair... -_- Well, I'd rather not take the chance of them doing that, as some users have said they did for a supposedly simple Super Drive replacement.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Remember: The ONE DAY CONTENT STRIKE is tomorrow. Don't post on LiveJournal. Don't comment. Don't fill out polls. Read if you must, but don't do anything else. Let them know that their removal of Basic accounts was a BAD IDEA!

I'm posting now to get my last-ditch LJ posts in. :P

January 2016

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