Computer woes

[catsittingstill]

The hard drive died on my main computer (the old laptop, not the new one).  It was possible to recover some of the data but by no means all.  We're having a new hard drive put in, because the computer has been a bit wonky for a while, peeping for no reason and sometimes locking up and having to be restarted, and we think the drive was at fault.

But it will have "brain damage"--be missing a lot of my old files and stuff.  It looks like the computer guy recovered what I need to do the (overdue) League of Women Voters booklet, and Kip's game files, but it won't be the same.

Also I have to find out how to move my iPod to a new computer without losing all the information on it.  It's not the music so much; most of it is ripped and I can just rip it again--it's my calendar and contacts and stuff. 

We'll see.  Probably I'll have the old laptop back tomorrow.

Comments

[mdlbear]

First thing to do is get yourself an external hard drive for making backups on. Second thing is to use it regularly. Until I set up automatic nightly backups, I always did mine on Sunday morning.

[catsittingstill]

I actually have one; the problem is that I couldn't figure out how to make it work. It turns out that both male USB plugs from the hard drive have to be plugged into a laptop--but not a desktop--for it to work. And I tried each of the plugs, since I though they might differ from each other in some important way, but plugging them *both* in didn't occur to me. Since the drive had worked with Kip's desktop computer with one plug, I thought the problem was with my laptop's USB and I had been meaning to do something about that, but where "do something about that" means "make an appointment, drive an hour to town, probably drop off the computer for days and maybe pay all kind of money" I had been putting it off.

[mdlbear]

Yeah; the two plugs are there for power. Many newer laptops have one or more USB sockets that provide more than the standard amount of power, but older equipment generally follows the standard, so it needs a boost to run a hard drive.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Hugs and sympathy. I hope you can reconstruct everything you need.

I read somewhere about a way to hook up an iPod to a new computer without the computer automatically deleting everything on it. I think you have to have the Preferences dialogue open in iTunes when you connect the iPod. I can't find the link now, but I did find this, which may help.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Sympathies.

So far as I know one can't easily upload music from an iPod--it's part of the iPod's DRM. Don't know about the calendar, contacts, and all. I think mark/space's Fliq for iPod may do it. If you can't find software to do it, you may need to transcribe them manually. In the future, you might try subscribing to Apple's MobileMe service or pick up the iPod Missing Sync, both of which provide synchronization.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Apple's MobileMe costs nearly 10$ a month, which I don't have to spare unless I stop donating to Planned Parenthood.

Missing Sync won't help me unless it will let me synch an iPod with a Mac that is not its usual Mac.

There is a program out there called Senuti (http://www.fadingred.com/senuti/) that looks like it will handle the music, but it's not the music I'm most concerned about at the moment.

But I'm planning to go consult the Genius Bar--maybe there's some way to synch the calendar and contacts that I don't know about.

[antinomic.livejournal.com]

If your new computer is a Mac, Itunes will give you the option to synch from the Ipod to the Mac the first time. Read your options carefully, but it is not difficult. Does not synch the music backwards but you will get the info you are talking about.

Now I'm talking from no experience: Itunes does work on PC's. So perhaps this works on a pc. But often Itunes synchs through Outlook on a pc, and I just don't know what happens in that case.

I hope you have a Mac with a new drive!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

There will be a new hard drive on the stricken Mac, or my other option is to synch to the newer laptop which hasn't suffered any kind of failure. I haven't decided for sure which route I want to go and it is beginning to look like it won't be an issue tonight (heard nothing from repair guy this morning--called just after noon--drive he thought would work as replacement is acting wonky; it's his last of that model; he expected a shipment of more "this afternoon" but in 10 minutes it will be late enough that I can't drive to the store before it closes. Arg.)

I will check into what you say about being able to sync non-music stuff. I appreciate the pointer.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Missing Sync might do what you want; Mark/Space is not as rigid in its restrictions as Apple. It is also possible to sync your data with a (free) Google account, though that does mean giving your data to the planet's biggest gossip. It's not that they're a malicious gossip; as far as I can tell they are not. But, still...

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Hurray! *hug*

I think this might do the trick.

I can always just synch it long enough to put the data back on my iPod after synching with the new Mac erases everything.

Then I put the data back, synch it to my new hard drive, and delete it from Google.

Thank you!