And let that be a lesson to you - I really thought I should back up my hard-drive before I left for Asia, but I didn't make it a priority and right away, I was forced to deal with the terror and anxiety of losing my data. BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE YOU LEAVE YOUR COUNTRY. Had I done that, I would've saved myself a lot of time and worry. As I did not, I've got a lot of tips for someone who might have this problem in the future...
At the hostel, another guest had a copy of Disk Warrior, which would've installed a rebuilt director on top of what I had in there already - but I afraid to lose any data, so I didn't do it. I ended up spending a lot of time at Pantip Plaza, rumored to be the largest IT Mall in southeast Asia, but I was stymied from doing anything about it because I also ran out of money just as this happened - enough to live on until a check came in from the States, but not enough to solve my problem with - and still save my data. Lots of places offered to do a clean install of the Mac O/S for about 1500 baht, which I didn't have anyway, but backing up the data would've been an additional 1500 baht, which I also didn't have. I put the computer on ice and waited...
I travelled to Krabi as scheduled and local ex-pats told me not to even bother trying to fix it anywhere but Bangkok or Phuket. As luck would have it, my money came in while in Krabi and I was supposed to go to Phuket anyway...on my first day there, I found a Mac re-seller inside the giant Central Mall, and met a cool guy named A who offered to first back up the data, then do the clean install (btw, a clean install will wipe your data so make sure you have a backup!) then put the data back...for 1500 baht. A total deal, right? Except I couldn't see entrusting a total stranger in a shopping mal who barely spoke English l with my data....
Did I mention to BACK UP YOUR SHIT BEFORE YOU LEAVE YOUR HOME COUNTRY?
Had I done that, I could've just had a clean install done and moved forward with my life. As it stood, I was left with this set of instructions, which I may now have to follow:
From my dear friend Canton Becker:
In your situation I'd need to have TWO computers to do the job -- yours and one that works.
1) buy an external drive
2) install the backup utility superduper on a borrowed WORKING macintosh, call it computer "B"
3) plug ext. drive into "B"
4) boot your computer ("A") into "firewire target mode" and plug it into "B" using a firewire cable. BTW if "A" and "B" do not both have firewire ports, then these instructions don't work.
5) use superduper on "B" to make a mirror of "A" onto the external drive
6) using "B", browse the external drive, make sure it looks like the files are all there
7) boot from DVD on "A"
8) format "A", install new OS
9) after booting from nice clean "A" plug in external drive and copy the files over you want to keep.
caveat emptor:
I don't know how to make a backup of a bad computer without having a 2nd working computer on hand. I'd probably leave it to the pros if I were you.
After reading all of this, I am probably going to bite the bullet and take it back to the kid in Central Mall and just let him do it. If I lose data, it's a hard lesson learned. A VERY HARD LESSON LEARNED.
After reading all of this, I am probably going to bite the bullet and take it back to the kid in Central Mall and just let him do it. If I lose data, it's a hard lesson learned. A VERY HARD LESSON LEARNED.
