Wahoooooo!

Sometimes the computer gods do smile down upon me. (Other times they seem to drop trow and...well, you get the idea.)

You remember I told you my PowerBook G4 crapped out on me the other day? Well I tried everything I could to get it to reboot and/or reinstall the MAC OS X and failed at every turn. As I usually do when I have a computer problem, I went whining to my daugther, who works at the Apple Store at the Mall in Short Hills. She talked me through some of the very same steps I had all ready done and then, "Jeez, dad. You're screwed!" or something like that. She had lost a hard drive on her PowerBook when it was just 2 years old. Mine was nearly 5 and starting to show its age.

I resigned myself to the loss of the HD and asked if there was any way I could retrieve my files. That was when she directed me to the section in the manual about linking two MACs using a bit of FireWire magic.

So, upon the advise of my lovely and talented daughter, Terry and I went shopping today for a piece of FireWire that had 6-to-6 pin connectivity. Our travels took us to the Best Buy in Horseheads. It was there we found the cable we needed and this nifty little Toshiba Satellite I am working on at the moment. (Never hurts to have a spare!)

Getting home we hooked up the two MACs as per the instructions and started my PowerBook up as I pressed the T key. Within moments I discovered that Terry's little iBook could see my HD just fine, thank you. I downloaded all my files to Terry's machine and will now see if I can erase the HD and have the restore disc rewrite the MAC OS X software on to it. If I succeed, I have a working PowerBook. If I don't, the PowerBook will have to go into the shop for a new HD. But at least I still have the Toshiba to work on!