iMac woes…
We may be offline for a short or very long amount of time. It seems our iMac is having some major hard drive problems and is becoming more and more unstable. David could use your prayers right now as he tries to deal with all of the different error messages and new things that don’t work anymore… and unfortunately, we cannot afford a new computer any time soon.
It really sucks that this happened right before Dave’s birthday. If I’m unable to get online before Tuesday, happy birthday to my honey… as happy as it can be with a sad iMac.
July 31st, 2004 at 11:15 pm
It is unlikely that you need a whole new computer. It is possible that you’re just having some hard disk problems. Here’s a few inexpensive suggestions for you and Dave to try.
First, back up your important data. Write your user folders to CDs or DVDs. Make sure you make a copy of any important financial files. (For a moment I thought I blew away my Quicken files when I upgraded to 10.3 and I almost fainted.) Backup your data. Right now. Really.
Now, let’s try a few quick tests to try to diagnose the problem.
Go to Applications/Utilities/ and launch the Disk Utility application. Select the volume that you’re having trouble with, click the First Aid tab and then click the “Verify Disk” button. It will take a quick spin through your disk and let you know if it encounters any obvious problems with the volume’s information. If it shows some errors, click the repair button. This isn’t checking to see if the Drive itself is bad, but it will let you know if something like the ultra top secret volume information has been corrupted somehow.
If you repair problems with the Drive and the problems quickly reappear it could be a sign that the physical drive itself is failing. A new hard drive is almost trivial to replace and it costs a tiny fraction of the cost of a new computer. A 100 Gig drive might cost you $60 or so. If you’re really tight on cash, I have an old 10 Gig drive that I could part with for nothing. I could even stick it in an external firewire case for you.
I would be stunned if your computer’s problem was fatal and warranted a replacement. However, if you do decide to get rid of it, I’ll take it off your hands.
If you need any help walking through any of this feel free to give me a call any evening.
(Now, go backup your important files)
Peter
July 31st, 2004 at 11:17 pm
…and another thing.
Before you go throwing the iMac away, if things don’t improve by doing some of the stuff I mentioned above, carry it down to Austin’s shiny new Apple Store and pay them a few bucks to test out your Mac. They’ll have all of the right tools for the job and could probably do it while you wait.
Peter
August 1st, 2004 at 9:04 am
I never said we needed a new computer, just that we couldn’t afford one. David has already tried everything you mentioned with NO definite success. I will let you read his posts on the CapMac forum.
My parents bought us a new external hard drive and David is ON TOP of the problem already. We’ve connected the external hard drive and tried backing up the files but — we are having some problems backing up the files. It quits in the middle of copying a file and just sits there for as long as you let it… Like I said, Dave is working on it. We’ll keep you posted.
August 1st, 2004 at 11:01 pm
When you mentioned that you couldn’t afford a new computer right now I understood that to mean that you believed that the iMac’s problems justified replacing the machine. Why would you have said that you can’t afford to buy a new computer if you weren’t considering exactly that option?
August 2nd, 2004 at 9:46 am
David has wanted a new computer for like two years already (drooling over each new computer/increased specs that apple introduces) and this screwed up iMac is a great-big inconvenience. In fact, David has looked up the prices of a new computer because for him it would be easier to buy a new one than to mess with this software crap at the same time as starting a new school year. If we could afford it, we probably would replace this one, but we can’t. It’s not that “we need a whole new computer.” because we don’t… we do not believe that the iMac’s problems justify replacing the machine. We do believe that, given the cash, it would be easier/faster/less stressful/more exciting to just replace the iMac… just as in many life situations, though, the easier way is not always the best way.