Benjamin Lauderdale has an extended article on Ars Technica on his recent PowerBook G4 harddrive failure. Interestingly, the failure mode was identical to my own recent crisis - the SMART error message and the ability to copy some but not all files before the drive failed totally. See my own blog entry for info on my case involving the Toshiba 80 gigabyte drive ("TOSHIBA MK8025GAS") in my PowerBook G4 12":
http://www.photoethnography.com/blog/archives/2005/02/equipment_drive_2.html
Apple Japan replaced my hard drive under the AppleCare plan for free (including free pickup and dropoff). It only took 3 days for it to leave and come back. Now, Apple Japan said in its repair notes that it "found no problem" but "replaced the hard drive and hard drive cable" anyway. Odd.
In any case, if you have an Apple PowerBook, it really behooves you to have something like S.M.A.R.T. Reporter installed. This is a freeware program that will constantly alert you to your hard drive's health. And yes, make lots of backups constantly! With DVD-R prices now less than a $1/disk for 4.7 gigabytes, you have no excuse!
3 Comments from the old Blogger.com system:
Luis said...
There is no excuse for not making backups. Once a week is the minimal for anyone who is working seriously with a computer.
4:31 PM
nasukaren said...
Luis -I agree, but MacOSX is so stable that you forget! Back in the days of Windows/MacOS9 when my computer would crash daily, I would remember to backup (usually because something was lost each time a crash happened). But with OSX, my computer basically never crashes, so I don't get those "reminders."Well, I got my reminder....... I'm now going to become a backup fanatic. Or so I tell myself.Karen
2:18 PM
Luis said...
I'm using OSX since the DR releases, and yes, the 10.3 is rock-solid stable, anyway I keep making backups in a regular basis because you never know when the MTBF will hit my happiness :)Most things I store is junk, but the others... addressbook, my code, my photos... all of those are croned and automatically backed up.
9:05 PM
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