Help me minimize the hassles of getti g a new computer
June 29, 2010 8:50 PM Subscribe
I think my MacBook has died. Help me minimize the cost/trauma/hassle of replacing it!
My 2.5 year old MacBook seemed to be doigg okay- a little sluggish sometimes, but absent a ram upgrade, not too bad on the specs. I was ready to go another year, and then tonight it just died on me.
It froze. I tried restarting it and got the greybscreen with the folder and blinking question mark. Googles the problem, tried everything. It would not boot in safe mode and when input in an install disk, it began making ominous bleeping noises and did not seem to recognize a hard drive to install on. Disk utility only read the boot disk in the cd drive and when in tried to reinstall the system, there was no hard drive listed to put it onto.
So I have a few questions.
1) Most of my files, iTunes music etc. Are backed up to Drop Box. Can I just install drop box onto the new machine, tell iTunes where the library is and it'll be business as usual on the new machine? I don't have a ton of music, but I would hate to have to redo all the metadada.
2) Any hope of getting a few not backed up yet files off then old machine? It is not a huge deal if no because there is not that much stuff as I use drop box a lot, but it would be nice to have a poke around one last time and just make sure.
3) Last time I bought a slightly nicer than bottom level MacBook I hopes ofngetting another year or two out of it. That clearly did notmwork. Mostly all I do is store media and ebooks, manage my iPod, so e light word processing. I am not a powernuser. Any advantage to a middle-end model or will a low end one probably suffice?
4) What about my iPad and iPod Touch? Indon't want iTunes to erase them the firsts time I plug in, and I would love to be able to log I to iTunes and have it bulk download all my apps for me so I don't have to go through and find them one by one. Options?
Basically, I have a mall gift card and get an education discount so I am prepared (although not happy) to buy a new one. I just want my ebook reader, iPad and files to work as they did before and it would be nice to go into the old machine for one last file rescue.
My 2.5 year old MacBook seemed to be doigg okay- a little sluggish sometimes, but absent a ram upgrade, not too bad on the specs. I was ready to go another year, and then tonight it just died on me.
It froze. I tried restarting it and got the greybscreen with the folder and blinking question mark. Googles the problem, tried everything. It would not boot in safe mode and when input in an install disk, it began making ominous bleeping noises and did not seem to recognize a hard drive to install on. Disk utility only read the boot disk in the cd drive and when in tried to reinstall the system, there was no hard drive listed to put it onto.
So I have a few questions.
1) Most of my files, iTunes music etc. Are backed up to Drop Box. Can I just install drop box onto the new machine, tell iTunes where the library is and it'll be business as usual on the new machine? I don't have a ton of music, but I would hate to have to redo all the metadada.
2) Any hope of getting a few not backed up yet files off then old machine? It is not a huge deal if no because there is not that much stuff as I use drop box a lot, but it would be nice to have a poke around one last time and just make sure.
3) Last time I bought a slightly nicer than bottom level MacBook I hopes ofngetting another year or two out of it. That clearly did notmwork. Mostly all I do is store media and ebooks, manage my iPod, so e light word processing. I am not a powernuser. Any advantage to a middle-end model or will a low end one probably suffice?
4) What about my iPad and iPod Touch? Indon't want iTunes to erase them the firsts time I plug in, and I would love to be able to log I to iTunes and have it bulk download all my apps for me so I don't have to go through and find them one by one. Options?
Basically, I have a mall gift card and get an education discount so I am prepared (although not happy) to buy a new one. I just want my ebook reader, iPad and files to work as they did before and it would be nice to go into the old machine for one last file rescue.
Response by poster: I will take the current one with me to the store. It's just that if the end is near, inconvenient though it might be, it is an okay time to replace it since I have the mall gift cards. It is still an unplanned expense though. The bad news is that Google says the bleeping noise is very ominous...
posted by JoannaC at 9:03 PM on June 29, 2010
posted by JoannaC at 9:03 PM on June 29, 2010
Response by poster: Btw o typed all this o. The iPad, so apologies for any typos. It keeps trying to autocorrent me and does not lime it when I type ns
posted by JoannaC at 9:05 PM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by JoannaC at 9:05 PM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Depending on when precisely you bought it, maybe it's covered by this replacement program for defective Macbook hard drives. Definitely worth a call to Apple/visit to a store in any case. This happened to my Macbook and I lost everything, but didn't really try to save what I had (I was in China and just happy to get back online). Same symptoms, though. :/ Dang I hate that question mark folder.
posted by xiaolongbao at 9:05 PM on June 29, 2010
posted by xiaolongbao at 9:05 PM on June 29, 2010
2.5 years seems really early to give up on it. I'm still using the Powerbook I bought in 2004, albeit with a few upgrades. But you should definitely go to the nearest Apple store. My Apple Care ran out years ago but I still go in when ever I have any trouble and they always help.
posted by JenMarie at 9:17 PM on June 29, 2010
posted by JenMarie at 9:17 PM on June 29, 2010
From my experience, your computer is likely fine, but your hard drive is damaged. I wouldn't necessarily replace the whole computer because hard drives typically die on their own under normal use.
If you go to an Apple genius bar you're likely to be told the same thing. if it's under applecare they'll offer to replace the drive but they'll refer you to a data recovery service to recover the data. That always costs a small fortune (like, near or above what a new macbook would cost).
The Apple store people will probably mention that there are cheaper and more common alternative for data recovery and they will gladly sell you disk repair/recovery software (e.g. diskwarrior, data rescue) that come with bootable CDs that can attempt to recover a drive that disk utility won't see. There are even free, open source solutions. but like with any kind of service, the cheaper you go the more complex it can be to fix. The data recovery service is the quickest, safest and most hassle free route.
Since you said you're not a power user, and you're on a limited budget, another alternative is to pay a independent Mac based service place that can use these kinds of software to recover your stuff. It's much cheaper than a dedicated data recovery service which will opens the drive up and tinker with the hardware.
If you do it yourself, sometimes recovering data from a drive is relatively painless (so painless that maybe the hard drive isn't 'dead' but the data/catalog was just fucked up and you can continue to use after a reformat), other times it's a real pain in the ass as it can take several days and still not get everything you want.
I'm sure there are threads here on the nitty gritty of data recovery so I wont rehash that, but if you want more info you can msg me.
posted by sammich at 9:54 PM on June 29, 2010
If you go to an Apple genius bar you're likely to be told the same thing. if it's under applecare they'll offer to replace the drive but they'll refer you to a data recovery service to recover the data. That always costs a small fortune (like, near or above what a new macbook would cost).
The Apple store people will probably mention that there are cheaper and more common alternative for data recovery and they will gladly sell you disk repair/recovery software (e.g. diskwarrior, data rescue) that come with bootable CDs that can attempt to recover a drive that disk utility won't see. There are even free, open source solutions. but like with any kind of service, the cheaper you go the more complex it can be to fix. The data recovery service is the quickest, safest and most hassle free route.
Since you said you're not a power user, and you're on a limited budget, another alternative is to pay a independent Mac based service place that can use these kinds of software to recover your stuff. It's much cheaper than a dedicated data recovery service which will opens the drive up and tinker with the hardware.
If you do it yourself, sometimes recovering data from a drive is relatively painless (so painless that maybe the hard drive isn't 'dead' but the data/catalog was just fucked up and you can continue to use after a reformat), other times it's a real pain in the ass as it can take several days and still not get everything you want.
I'm sure there are threads here on the nitty gritty of data recovery so I wont rehash that, but if you want more info you can msg me.
posted by sammich at 9:54 PM on June 29, 2010
oh to answer #1 and 4, if you have your iTunes folder backed up then just copy it back to the music folder and it should be all good. The one important file you need are the iTunes Library file (which contains your playlists and info about your devices) and of course the other stuff is the folders that contain all the apps n' music and stuff.
posted by sammich at 10:01 PM on June 29, 2010
posted by sammich at 10:01 PM on June 29, 2010
It's worth pulling the hard drive out and mounting it on another machine. Often system files get corrupt and will prevent startup, but will allow recovery of files. Sometimes you get lucky and running Disk Utility and fixing permissions repairs the problem. Like I said, it's worth trying (or paying someone to try)
This is assuming the drive isn't utterly hosed. I usually know pretty quick if a drive is recoverable or not.
The drive comes out of the MacBooks very easily. Takes me under a minute.
Are you near upstate NY by any chance? If so I would be happy to try.
posted by KenManiac at 10:29 PM on June 29, 2010
This is assuming the drive isn't utterly hosed. I usually know pretty quick if a drive is recoverable or not.
The drive comes out of the MacBooks very easily. Takes me under a minute.
Are you near upstate NY by any chance? If so I would be happy to try.
posted by KenManiac at 10:29 PM on June 29, 2010
Re #3:
+1 to the "it's probably just a dead hard drive" suggestions. If you have a handy friend, or are feeling up to it, you could replace it yourself. Apple has a guide here. A new drive would only cost about $50, for example. If you're not feeling handy, I'm pretty sure Apple would sell you a new drive (for substantially more than on Newegg) and replace it for you (also for a price). This is all assuming it's not under AppleCare.
If you're really insistent on buying a whole new computer, there's really not a difference in quality between the models (other than plastic vs aluminum bodies). Spending more won't necessarily get you a computer that lasts longer.
posted by Tu13es at 5:25 AM on June 30, 2010
+1 to the "it's probably just a dead hard drive" suggestions. If you have a handy friend, or are feeling up to it, you could replace it yourself. Apple has a guide here. A new drive would only cost about $50, for example. If you're not feeling handy, I'm pretty sure Apple would sell you a new drive (for substantially more than on Newegg) and replace it for you (also for a price). This is all assuming it's not under AppleCare.
If you're really insistent on buying a whole new computer, there's really not a difference in quality between the models (other than plastic vs aluminum bodies). Spending more won't necessarily get you a computer that lasts longer.
posted by Tu13es at 5:25 AM on June 30, 2010
Just to answer the replacement side of things: I've always bought refurbished computers directly from the Apple store (go to "deals" or "specials" on the store homepage) - same warranty as the brand new computers, but significantly cheaper. I've never had a problem with this - I'm on my second refurbished computer (in five years, so they don't die out faster than normal - also, first one was a desktop and my second is a laptop, so the second was necessary anyway) and I've been very happy with both.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:54 AM on June 30, 2010
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:54 AM on June 30, 2010
You could save hundreds if you're willing to test out a new hard drive. Is it the Black/White version or the Aluminum Unibody version?
posted by reeddavid at 7:21 AM on June 30, 2010
posted by reeddavid at 7:21 AM on June 30, 2010
« Older What are the good Internet radio shows? | when I was a teenager I owned a muscle car, now I... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
If your hard drive is what's wrong, though, then getting data off of it could be a challenge.
posted by that girl at 9:00 PM on June 29, 2010