Rotten Apple

I love my computer more than any of my other material possessions. It's a black MacBook and it's been good to me for more than 14 months now. So you might imagine my disappointment when I got home from work on Wednesday to discover the image above staring back at me. If you can't imagine, I will try to describe the horror.

I got home from a long, stressful day at my "real job" and pressed the old spacebar key to wake 'er up for my second round of work. She didn't perk up the way she usually does and finally managed to spit out a white screen with a blinking file folder and giant question mark. A question mark is right!, I said to myself. Simultaneously I began to hear a rythmic clicking noise and despite a limited knowledge of computer hardware, I knew this was not good. The panic started to set in as I powered down and back up again. I booted up my other laptop and frantically began searching the Apple web site for their help number (whilst googling the file folder/question mark error message ... which is akin to searching Web MD when you have a headache and are experiencing a general state of malaise - you will close the brower knowing you have but mere hours to live).

I finally connected to an Apple service tech after sorting out my service warranty (grrr!). Now, I normally really appreciate Apple's laid-back/techy/Gen Y approach to service - I mean, they call themselves Geniuses! But on this particular evening, I was looking for someone to share my panic and sense of urgency. What I got instead was, as I could only imagine, a 22-year old sitting in a cube with a headset on, a beer in one hand, and a joint in the other. In his defense, he was somewhat knowledgeable as he walked me through a few unsuccessful rescue attempts. But the third time he casually dropped "no worries" throughout the conversation, I finally went into screaming banshee mode and replied, "I AM WORRIED! There are a lot of worries on this phone call!"

The soonest appointment I could get at the Apple Store was this morning and my Genius Will basically confirmed my worst nightmare in about 5 minutes: Total failure of the hard drive. He recommended a few data recovery services in town but just received the call that 'Ole Besse was D.O.A.; Recovery not possible.

Now I know what your next burning question is and I am going to go ahead and answer No, I did not have a back-up of my hard drive (it's a relatively new Apple; that was my back-up). So let me take this moment to gently remind you to back up your data if you do not regularly do so! I basically have to start from scratch with everything - all of my graphics files, programs, iTunes, photos, etc... all gone! Aaaarrrrrgh! Lesson learned!