Sounds like you got a dud, which happens on all computers of all brands from time to time. Still doesn't make it a pleasant experience. My wife's MacBook has been shipped to AppleCare twice now with a dead motherboad (the first time) and a dead hard drive (the second time). Since I convinced her to switch from her Dell I got to hear about it. Of course the Dell had already had its share of failures hardware and otherwise so it wasn't a huge armtwist. She does like it when it works.
That said, as far as a backup goes, you could just plug in an external hard drive and copy to it anything you care about. Time machine also works well and will do an incremental backup every 60 minutes. The UI isn't very accessible but if you had to reinstall things there is a step in the setup where you can restore from a timeMachine backup, so if things really went pear shaped you could at least get your files back. The time machine backup is organized so you could go to DriveName/ComputerName/Latest/YourDriveName and find everything that it backed up from your drive, so you don't have to use their GUI at all once it's turned on. I'd get an external drive roughly 2x the size of the drive you want to back up. That way you'll have room for a full backup and lots of incrementals. Hope this helps. CB Eleni Vamvakari wrote: > So the Mac quit on me again, no more than two weeks after I got it > back from Apple. I was trying to use that converter program and it > just sat there and did nothing, as I've said in another post. Then, > it just disappeared. One minute it was open and the next it was gone. > When I reloaded it, I couldn't get into it's menus. I could only get > into the Apple and other menus by hitting VO-m twice. Now I was > really annoyed, so I did two bad things. First, I pounded my hand on > the computer and second, I shut it off with the power button instead > of going through the normal shut-down process. As a result, the > hyphin key came up a little (don't ask how, since I wasn't anywhere > near it) and when I turned it back on, I got no speech. No matter > what I did, I couldn't get VoiceOver to start. > > Two days ago, Mom came up to try to help me but with no success. > When she turned it on, she only saw an apple going around and around > and then a blank screen. We tried the tech tool cd but when we put it > in, nothing happened. So we tried the Leopard installation disk. > This time, the cd drive made a bit of a strange sound (sort of like a > buzzing) but did nothing else either good or bad. I heard the drive > sound getting louder, as it usually does and then it went quiet. > Yesterday, I hooked up the external keyboard but that didn't work > either. The machine turns on, makes the start-up sound and I know the > hard disk is doing something, But I can't get it to talk. If anyone > can offer me a suggestion as to what I can do, I'd sincerely > appreciate it. > > In the meantime, we called Apple. They said they'd give us a > refirbished model, but now I have to wait for someone to bring me > and/or it to the store. I know that I misused the Mac but it still > shouldn't be acting like this. It's not like I spilled a whole cup of > coffee in the keyboard and threw it out the window. I seriously can't > take this anymore. Yes, Leopard does have some advantages over > Windows. But what is the advantage of having a $2,000 machine when it > always breaks down and when a cheaper one works just as well? My > AppleCare is about to expire, and when it does, I can't keep shelling > out money every time this thing decides to break down. > > Anyway, I asked a friend about how I can save my files and get them > off of there and he suggested I hook up my Mac and the household Mac > via a fire wire connection and use Migration Assistant. How does that > work? I can't ask Joanie, cause she barely uses it and only for very > basic things, and Mom's just learning how to use a computer. Please, > can anyone help me so that I don't mess up the other machine? Can I > transfer files to a cd or usb stick with this program and is it > possible for me to delete the ones off of my machine with it? Btw, > I've never used Time Machine, if that's required to use Migration > Assistant. > > Thanks, > Eleni > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
