broke(n)mac weekend

or, "I wish I knew how to fix you"

*disclaimer 1: this post is not directly related to (but definitely inspired by) the (very funny) brokeback mountain/mac support spoof, which can be seen here.

**disclaimer 2: while I am of course a mac die-hard, I will admit that even macs have their problems. however, the events of this weekend are my fault. my poor system maintenance practices and love of experimenting with third-party apps coupled with the fact that I have not cleanly re-installed my OS since purchasing the computer have finally come to a head. I still love my mac!

wow. it's finally over. from around 2 PM last afternoon until around 3 this morning, and then again for a few hours off and on today I have been sitting in front of my 51-month-old 15" Titanium 550MHz Apple PowerBook G4 trying to figure out just what was wrong with it. this all started (I think) when I attempted to upgrade from OS 10.4.3 to 10.4.4 a few weeks ago. it didn't work, and after trying again yesterday (as well as installing a few new open-source applications I found) I restarted my 'book only to see it hang at the "Welcome to Mac OS X..." screen. it was then that I commenced troubleshoot mode.

I actually learned a lot about my computer and OS X this weekend. I can now check log files, boot into single-user mode, use the terminal a little more confidently, and patiently sit in front of my computer while re-booting it innumerable times. for over 15 hours.

luckily I keep a (semi-up-to-date) copy of my entire hard drive on an external drive. I was able to boot from that disk, hunt around my hard drive and the internet for problems and solutions and, finally, copy over my /Library and /System folders. I only wish I had tried that yesterday.

I know you probably don't understand or care about most of what you just read, let alone why I didn't give up, but this needed to get out of me somehow.

my roommates and mother reminded me throughout the process that I could just take it in to the Apple store if I couldn't figure out what was up. this was never an option for me. if I can't fix it, I'd rather re-install the OS than pay someone else to do it. and I'm too proud.

I now pledge, to you the internet audience, that I will reform my maintaining ways. hopefully the mac can make it another 4 years before any more major troubleshooting is necessary. I sure found something to pass the time up in my room.

yee-haw,
dg: your company's computer guy