So my computer died...

[hamletta]

 Last night something happened to my computer. Suddenly, windows started opening and closing, applications starting then closing, all on their own. It looked like something possessed my machine--or like someone took it over. I managed to save my work and shut it down, and that was it. I switched off internet in the house and tried to turn it back on--no such luck. It makes the typical mac's "boom" sound as if starting, but nothing happens. It was an old MacBook Pro, but it still worked perfectly. 

I had been planning to buy a new, smaller one, and my husband would take over that one, because it had huge memory and the fastest processor available at the time (I used to do video editing so I needed it, and now he's trying to do some music producing, so it  would be perfect for him). So this has forced my hand. I just got a new Mac, and have spent almost the entire day setting it up -- normally the Time Machine would do the job, but the memory on this one is too small so it refused to do the full transfer. 

Luckily, my files seem to be intact. The Cloud back up worked, and I haven't lost o word from my WiP. That's a huge relief.

Now reinstalling/reauthorising software, getting preferences set up and other such joy. And some stuff I need to re-buy, because I only had one computer licence... As if buying a new one wasn't expensive enough.

But at least I can stop hyperventilating. I was so worried my files were lost... 

Comments

[davidgillon]

All praise automated backups!

I've seen random stuff with my laptop recently, which is down to keyboard problems - the T key keeps intermittently sending a stream of Ts, and if you're in menus with T as an option.... So something like that might be a possibility.

If it's turning on, and starting to boot, then it sounds like the hardware is mostly okay, though I don't know Macs well enough to know if it's getting far enough in startup that it's using the disk. Which is a long way around to saying it might not be a complete lost cause.

[hamletta]

Yes, I was so happy I had that set up!

I'm going to take the old one to a shop, see if they can fix it. It's just too odd for it to collapse entirely without a warning... Fingers crossed it can still be salvaged.

[tbutler]

My mantra, from the years I worked tech support at a hard drive company:

Back up early.

Back up often.

Back up always.

:)

[davidgillon]

I recently invested in a tiny 16Gb thumb drive that sits permanently in one of my laptop's USB slots. Files I'm working on get backed up onto that as well as to the cloud, and for my WIP I regularly save dated versions as well. I also keep slightly less frequent copies on another 16Gb USB that lives on my keyring. So if the laptop dies, I have copies in three places. If the laptop is stolen I have copies in two places.

When it comes to hard drive failures, BTDT...