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Crapbook

by Keegan Jones 25 Comments

It happened. The internal hard drive on my Powerbook has gone to the crapper. Now that I think back, I believe it's been on the decline for a few weeks. Which explains why files would randomly would disappear. As hard as I've been on my Powerbook the last two years, I'm surprised that the drive lasted this long.

Of course, I lost a bunch of important data (what is a backup?). Including my iPhoto library from this year, address book, and 6,000+ emails. I am thankful, however, that I was able to grab my "Sites" folder before the drive went haywire. Time Machine, where art thou?

The past two days I've spent installing apps and updates, trying to remember logins, and getting everything back to normal. You know the drill. On my quest to restore my Crapbook, I've stumbled upon a few nuggets:

1) Adobe's update message: "The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?". You bet your bubbles I do.

2) Senuti is an application for copying music from your iPod to iTunes. It even keeps your play counts and ratings intact.

3) Since when does Tiger not install iLife? Maybe I overlooked the install option in my haste. There is an application called Pacifist which allows you to browse though install packages on a disk. This enabled me to go back and find iLife on the OS X disk after I installed Tiger.

Here is some live* video coverage covering the incident. There would have been more video of the inside of the Crapbook, but my weeny 1GB SD card ran out of room.

The Backstory
Buying the hard drive
Screwdriver from Lowes
Taking the Crapbook apart
Messing with the case
Inside the Computerz

* Live actually means two days old

25 Comments

So frustrating! Thanks for the links.

Thommy Browne

29 May 07 at 0:04am

Was the drive a Maxtor?

Noah Stokes

29 May 07 at 0:17am

Ouch…that really sucks. And yet another reason to back up everything, all the time. And yet another reason to get external hardrives!

Leland Clemmons

29 May 07 at 0:57am

Can't say I didn't warn you.

Sean S

29 May 07 at 2:39pm

You're killing me with the suspense! Show the insidez!

Sean S

29 May 07 at 2:48pm

Ouch. Mayhaps it's time to upgrade to a MacBook Pro?

Mrad

29 May 07 at 2:55pm

Now this is comedy, Keegan. Well the broken Powerbook isn't so funny but that videos that accompany this post are too much. I was all set to post about how the banner image is the best part of this post but I was clearly wrong. The best part is definitely, "you can go through, you have a bag". Your going to force me to create a Vimeo account so I can leave comments there. At least your were able to keep your cool through all that. I hear that you should be able to re-download anything purchased from the iTunes store. Does flickr help with any of your lost photos?

Nick

29 May 07 at 4:58pm

My hard drive is totally dying a very slow death. I probably should update my computer, but I'm gonna ride this one out until my little HP dies. I hope it catches fire and sets my apartments fire alarm off.

In which case, after my HP dies, I shall resurrect with a Macbook Pro, just like Jesus. Except with OS X and Steve Jobs.

Jerrett Fowler

29 May 07 at 5:32pm

Damn frustrating. Even more frustrating is that we never got to see the insides of the Mac! I remember when my hdd crashed and burned, but I was coming to the end of my one year computer warranty so Compaq replaced it for me for free!

Julian Sharma

29 May 07 at 6:07pm

Could be worse…my Powerbook sets my pants on fire every time I try to use it. I'll take a crap hard drive over fire pants any day.

Nathan Heleine

29 May 07 at 6:57pm

Sorry to hear about your hard drive woes. If you lost some really critical data you can probably get it recovered off the drive. Or you could do it yourself with a copy of SpinRite (which unfortunately costs 80 bucks) and a Windows machine that you can hook the drive up to.

Also &#151; backup, backup, backup!

Rob Goodlatte

29 May 07 at 7:16pm

I swore that was janson up there.. I also have a problem with teh fire pants. Will be backing up Powerbook asap. Thanks for letting us laugh at your misfortune.

Kyle Jones

29 May 07 at 11:50pm

thanks for the post/reminder. on that note, i have an external which i currently only use to holds me musics. what do you guys suggest for backup software? do i need to purchase something or just use what came w/ the drive? (lacie 250gb porsche firewire)

i swear i've seen a lot of stuff in my life, but that… was… awesome. sorry about your hard drive man.

Greg

30 May 07 at 9:32am

@Noah – It was a Hitachi drive. Although I hear that Maxtor is not very reliable.

@Sean – Okay, there is now a video of the Crapbook internals. It was supposed to be linked up originally, but I got the videos mixed up. Me = n00b.

@Nick – Glad you enjoyed the soap opera

@Nathan – Firepants…haha! That is one of my new favorite words.

30 May 07 at 1:56pm

My G4PB died the day I graduated from college. I woke up, turned the thing on and got the sad mac face. I got pretty damn lucky, but I new it was coming because the HD had been clicking since before my DC internship started 9 months before. (Wow, that's a long time.)

But dear Rygel, may he rest in peace, lasted for two and a half years. Almost exactly. And I was pretty abusive too.

I traded my brother a 15" flat panel tv for my dead computer. Then bought a MacBook.

Kate

30 May 07 at 4:31pm

I changed the hd in my ibook a few weeks ago… had to take out like a million screws and it didn't work after i put it back together! but it's fine now. it is a LOT easier to get to the hd on the new apple laptops.

jet

30 May 07 at 10:27pm

ive had two hard drives fail due to corruption from faulty RAM.

make sure your RAM is good and has a good warranty, or else your pbook, like mine, will find out two hard drives later that you should have spend the extra money for good RAM.

Austen Varian

1 Jun 07 at 0:22am

Very sorry to hear that, I just got out of Dodge myself. A few days ago my wife toldme the G4 would´n wake up, instead it kept beachballing while a ticking noise came out of it.

Insert images of me signing my divorce… the night before I downloaded the whole set of pictures of our newborn from the camera into that machine. Thanks God Norton PhD came to the rescue and I managed to boot and backup.

BTW, before you ask, yes it is a Maxtor.

Joesys

2 Jun 07 at 10:07am

Awe, I just went through the same thing with my 15 inch PB. Just me or is it a bit scary inside the little bastard?

I also thought the updating the updater thing was halarious.

Also, super happy the noob is back!

Colin Grigson

3 Jun 07 at 4:06pm

I just replaced my Powerbook's hard drive. Just as you described, the icons on my Desktop started disappearing, and the only way I could bring them back was with Spotlight. I'm presently transferring all of my files to the new drive. I'm glad I got to mine when I did, and I'm so sorry yours crapped out before you had a chance to make backups.

Ted

11 Jun 07 at 5:42am

You are such an idiot. You testify that Macs are the greatest computers on earth. Then you turn around and openly admit that you lost everything becuase of the worthless machine.

Thanks so much for willfully revealing your level of intelligence!

Your Mom

12 Jun 07 at 3:04pm

@Your Mom – Come on, dude. Are you seriously saying that a crashed hard drive reflects on the quality of the entire machine and/or the OS?

I was a PC user for the past 15 years, and am now using Mac's exclusively. I can honestly say that no part of me ever wants to use a PC again.

BTW, lighten up a bit, dude.

JC

12 Jun 07 at 3:29pm

I had this same thing happen to my Powerbook at the 2 year mark. Unfortunately it happened right in the middle of a trip through Europe.

Aaron Martin

20 Jun 07 at 10:45am

Anyone who comes to someone else's blog and starts calling them names should have the courage to at least put their name up. You could have even have made up a fake one, you idiot.

Aaron Martin

20 Jun 07 at 10:48am

im currently looking into the whole MAC vs PC debate and this post doesnt do the argument for Mac any favors….

Frank White

19 Mar 08 at 0:02am

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Keegan Jones is a designer living somewhere between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. He can make a tasty bowl of EasyMac, and loves sticking it to the man. After beating Guitar Hero on expert mode, he now acts like a rockstar. Things just haven't been the same since.

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