Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Sh*t Happens

After four plus years of loyal service, the hard drive on my MAC PowerBook G4 suddenly crapped out on me this morning. Instead of a nice crisp bell-tone and all sorts of happy startup sounds I get a grinding reminiscent of a '54 Ford pick-up in need of a transmission job and hauling two shovelfuls of nearly round 2" diameter gravel in an unlined metal bed.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad a sound, but there was less than a smooth spin-up of the old hard drive as it attempted to get going. And then there was--nothing. Just a grey-blue screen with the Apple logo. Forever.

I've tried doing all I can to get it booted up. It does so from the Install/Restore disc that came with it but even from there it fails to install the Mac OSX because of some fatal flaw on the hard drive.

Looks like it will be back to the shop to see if the whiz kids at the Apple store can help. Since I never did get around to backing up any of my files, I'm screwed if they can't retrieve them for me. if I can get a hard drive for less than $300 to replace the defective one in the PowerBook I will be happy.

Meanwhile, I'll be looking at a Toshiba Satellite for a temporary replacement. Wal-Mart carries them at a very reasonable price. I see they have a nice A105-S4397 for just under $900. Only bad thing about it is it comes with Vista all ready installed. I'd much rather take my chances with an XP machine.

Oh, well. Now if the up to 2 FEET of snow we are predicted to get today and tomorrow would only get out of the way....

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