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September 19, 2001
It may not be as bad as last week - however bad it
gets.
This morning - my G4 minitower CRASHED!
Right after I got off the phone with the hospital
- because my younger son has my stomach flu. And a mild fever. And he
just tossed his cookies.
I have a meeting, dog and cats to get to the vet
on the way to work.
I am up early (6AM) and have a headache.
So I really did not need this!!!!!
First it froze.
Well, my G4 Minitower, 27 GB hard drive and 355 MB
RAM, floppy, scanner and 21" Studio Display (that takes two men and a
boy to move), freezes on occasion.
I simply reboot.
And it gets happy again.
And I run TechTools Pro every now and then to keep
it happy.
This time, it would not boot.
I could not find the install CD.
I tried extensions off.
Nada.
I have Apple Care - but I never filed it. (Still
valid. Just messy.)
The receipt - you guessed it - is ELECTRONIC and
on the hard drive that I now cannot see.
I Inserted Norton Utilities. I am running OpSys 9.0.
It came up.
Good.
Fix it!
It starts.
It is running TechTools!
It says I have a master something or other that needs
to be fixed.
I tell it to do it.
It says it is fixed and----
Red light! Freeze!
Now it froze while Utilities was running!
It will not boot!
I tried other things.
No joy.
I got a zip disk and ran to my son's room and loaded
9.1 on a zip disk.
Any port in an emergency. (I could not find my 9.1
CD either.)
No joy.
I was losing it. My son was too sleepy to comment.
(He's been studying the manuals. But he is also learning OpSys X.)
I got out my Apple Care box - and the Apple Care
CD.
The Apple Care CD booted and tried to reinitialize
my HARDDRIVE!!!!!
Couldn't mount it!!!!
Thought I "needed to initialize" all 25.5 Gigs
of data!
PANIC
TERROR HYSTERIA B ecause I have not yet vented last's weeks
horror. I need an object. An event. My G4 just gave me one!
I had not yet registered Apple Care you see. And
I did not want to loose my data.
I frantically went over what I would lose. I've got
a lot on DVD. Work stuff is duped at work and current work on a zip disk
or two or three.
email. I'd lose Fabio fans and other email. The websites
are on-line - but not the original artwork. I'd lose a lot of that too.
The recent stuff. I have no back-up for the recent
stuff. Where are those DVDs?
Time for a call to Apple.
I had the paperwork. Serial Numbers. Apple Care Number.
The lock key. (My computer is bolted to a 6' table.
"Get THAT out the door!")
My store had closed. Permanently. The one I used
to run to in panic, G4 in tow.
I called Apple Care.
I had tried Tech Tools
Still could not find the system disk.
They had me try one tool after the other - Norton,
TechTools Pro and AppleCare
I was loosing it. I let them tell me what to do.
They stayed calm. I tried to.
"Still not coming up.!"
"That's Bad"-----egad!!!! Don't say that!
DiskWarrior - Last attempt before I slashed my wrists.
Zip drive in and out. (By this time properly loaded
off of another CD with an OpSys 9.0 System Folder.)
DiskWarrior came up and said -
"Gee - you have a problem with the main directory
- I ought to fix that."
It did. I told it to.
By now I have a headache. A stiff neck. A sick stomach.
Well, I had the sick stomach to start with.
It put the fixed directory on the hard drive and
mounted the hard drive.
"BIGSTUD" is now there.
I can open it!
I am shaking like a leaf (behind in doing my back-ups
you see - bad, bad, bad).
I reboot and all is well! YES!
They would, of course, like me to FAX the paperwork
- the sales receipt for the computer is ON THE HARDDRIVE of course, of
course. Because my baby is past its original warranty.
Which is why I have a 3-year Apple Care package.
And why I will renew it.
Tomorrow. Bless you my son. Thank you. Thank you.
My baby is talking to me.
My son is puking. I will be working at home today.
No FAX.
I make a note.
Fax the paperwork. And get a speaker phone.
I am going to put on warm and fuzzy sweats now (the
fog is in) and work on some files now.
Something about Static Timing Analysis.
Because I'VE HAD ENOUGH STRESS!!!!!!!
Yes, one hour of my own particular terror is enough
for today.
I refuse to watch the news.
I am busy paging the doctor and nurses and checking
on what I do with a 246 lbs son with a temp of 37.4 who gets cranky when
he doesn't eat.
And later today I need to get him in the shower.
Seems less daunting today after the morning I've
had.
Of course, as soon as BIGSTUD mounted, I looked up
and saw a box way, way at the top of the bookcase. I have 12' of 6' tall
bookcases. Loaded. Lots of software.
Lots of CDs. Books. Papers. Hardware.
I reached up, and there they were.
Little buggers.
My 9.0 OpSys Install CD.
And my 9.1 OpSys Install CD.
Nestled in their little box.
All safe and sound.
Little devils.
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