6 posts tagged “mac mini”

Last night, my computer choked after backing some files up, and now it's gone sad again.  Which means, I'm going to need to reformat and reinstall like I did last time. :sigh:  This time, it's letting me actually log in and click on things, but doing them in super duper slo-mo.  Like I started copying my documents folder about a half hour ago and it's just now starting to copy (it was processing to see how many files there were up until now).  But at least that means I can back this stuff up, even if it takes a little while.

This is not coming at a good time because I'd like to be prepping for my new iPhone to arrive, and now when it comes, I may not have a computer ready to sync it with and grab music and everything! 

I am glad that I took the time to document my process last time, though, because that will help me get back on my feet faster.  I need to record a few new things that I've added since February to my list and that will give me a good reminder on what to back up.

With the help of E, I took time this weekend to backup and then erase/reinstall my Mac because it has been so sad lately.  First, we did some extra tests to really be sure that one of my sticks of memory was bad like we thought, and it definitely was the case.  So I'm at 1.25 gigs instead of 2 still.

We completely wiped everything out, and when it came back up after a lot of system updates (from 10.4 on the install disk to 10.4.11 and everything else that had to be updated took a long time), things were working well again, including Safari which hasn't opened for the last few weeks.  I'm so happy this worked!  This will keep me going on this machine for a while longer to hopefully see the next best thing Apple will announce (hopefully a better version of the Mac Mini, or maybe they'll have something completely new in the coming months).

For fun, here are some of the essential things I had to get set back up after the clean install.  I did everything one at a time rather than just copying in my library folder in case something there was causing problems.  This took more time but I think things will be more clean and right this way.

• iPhoto - restored photos and reinstalled the Flickr plugin that I use (FlickrExport)
• iTunes - restored music and reinstalled the last.fm plugin for sending my music data (scrobbler).  Also got the standalone program iTunesPublisher which is helpful for making html copies of my purchased music.
  
• Mail - restored mail and the settings/rules
• Firefox - first thing I downloaded!  I also re-grabbed my favorite extensions, All-in-one Gestures, Del.icio.us, Tab Mix Plus, and some designer tools: Web Developer toolbar, Colorzilla, and Edit CSS.  I restored my bookmarks for this and Safari at the same time too.
• I also found the Safari View extension when I was getting mine, and this is something I looked for in the past because I've always appreciated the IE View extension on my PC.
• I was using the Whitehart theme before, but I think I want to try something new.  I'll have to browse for a bit to find what I really want.
  
• NetNewsWire - I owned a copy of this, but now it's free.  I synced with NewsGator and all of my feeds were back intact.  The new version is actually nice, there's some cool new features.
• Quicken - restored data file.  I'm so tired of this software, but still need it's data, so I keep using it.  My favorite alternative I've found is iBank.
  
• Disk Inventory X - this is really handy to see where the space on my disk goes to, so I reinstalled it.
• LinoType Font Explorer - for managing my fonts, which is a much smaller list of them than I used to have on my PCs.
  
• Dashboard - grabbed my favorite widgets: NowPlaying, Volcano Cam, AccuWeather.  I also re-set up my 4 weather locations (Vancouver, Portland, Loma Linda, and San Francisco)
• Age of Mythology - my favorite game I have for the Mac.
• Restored databases for iCal and my Address Book.
• Restored the data in my Documents.
  

I still need to get my Adobe suite back up and running, but must find the files first.  I didn't re-download Camino or Opera, but I barely ever used them.  I used to have SubEthaEdit, but now I've found it's not free for personal use any longer.  I owned a copy of Transmit, but I couldn't find the original file, so I need to research that; same for MarsEdit, back when it was still run by Brent Simmons.  I held back on re-installing QuickSilver, Growl, Adium, Twitterrific, and Google Desktop for now.  I didn't get NeoOffice again, but it was frustrating me so much, and I'm looking at either iWork or the Office 2008 for Mac.

So now I'm just about back to normal, and skimmed through my TV news I'd been missing for most of the week in NNW.  It sure is nice to have a smooth moving computer again :)

Oh how I wish the Macworld expo had come out with a new version of the Mac Mini or whatever will replace it, or made some sort of a decision on it.  I really hate to buy the current version and then have something better come along.

For the last 6 months at least, I've been having problems with my current Mac Mini.  This is the second one I've had, I had the first generation in April 2005, and then whatever the newer one in April 2006 because it was more powerful and E inherited the original.  So I'm ready for one with more power, and I really want Leopard and iLife 08 (for the new iPhoto mainly) and I'm ready to try and get a new banking software (eying the linked iBank3), as well as the Office suite which is now more affordable for home use.

For the last month or two, I'm having major problems.  KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE and the like.  We swapped out the ram and after a few tries for which slot they were plugged into, we stopped some of the major crashes.  But now Safari and as of today, NetNewsWire no longer will load at all.

The next step is to wipe everything out and reinstall in case the OS is screwed up somehow, but I'm not sure if that will fix it or not.

I'm just ready for a new mac, and the iMac isn't a great option because I already have a nice monitor (Viewsonic 19").  The Mac Pro is just too much (money AND power) for my needs.  And while a laptop might be nice, it's more money and I don't need the portability most of the time.  I'm definitely planning to stick with a mac rather than rebuilding a PC, that's for sure.  I have a hard time believing that Apple will discontinue the Mac Mini without something else that's entry level and small, but I guess they could just keep the same model of the Mac Mini available with no real upgrades for a long time.

So for now, I'm going to be backing everything up a lot and making lists of programs I must reinstall after clearing things out.  When I migrated from Mac Mini #1 (dubbed 'cinderella' - my ipod is 'tinkerbell'), I used the migration wizard, so I haven't ever had to reinstall stuff.  (Mac Mini #2 is 'tifa', guess what game I'd just played when I got her?!)

What fun....!

I woke up to my personal computer being very grumpy with me.  It crashed Firefox and Safari really bad, and then I tried to restart and it won't load all the way up.  Sigh, this mac has been much more problematic than the first mac mini I had (which is now E's.)  We are hoping it's just the ram and putting in the original will make it work again.  It's working more than it was last time it crashed really bad at least, and it's made it on the network so I was able to back some stuff earlier today (my iphoto library and itunes library were my biggest worries, even though it hasn't been *that* long since they were backed up... now I need to figure out where Quicken stores it's files to grab that)

When I have to mess with this, it sucks my day away.  I worked, watched part of the Emmy's in fast forward, did laundry, and worked on my grocery list, but I don't feel like I got even remotely enough done today on all the things I like to do starting out my week.

I think a little knitting may make me a little less anxious about the whole thing, so I'm going to set aside my grocery-listing and do that for a bit :)

My mac is back home.  They called this afternoon and said it was done - they replaced the logic board and all was well.  PHEW!  I was quite worried about my data, not ALL of hit had been backed up lately.We were quite surprised that they got it done so quick, only a day and a half later.  Worth two drives to downtown (Pioneer Place) for certain.

Funny part?  The tech at the genius bar when we came to pick it up said I won the prize for having the most icons on my desktop (they backed up my personal data before messing around and so they signed in to grab it), and he was impressed that they were all organized (I have them set to a very small icon size and snapping to grid and things near other related things).  E wasn't amused, he's always telling me I should clean that up, but I giggled at it. :D   

I never really wanted to see 'Kristine B' up on the board.

Edited to add: My mac mini decided to stop working.  We had to take it to the genius bar to get some help.  Luckily, it's less than a year old (this is my second one, E has the first now).  They think *maybe* it's a logic board problem, but had to keep it.  Sigh, I miss it.  Hopefully they'll be able to fix it quickly!