Post by: Xairbusdriver on October 16, 2010, 11:20:12 AM
Restarted, never got past the grey screen.
Restarted with Applejack in auto. Ran repairs. Restart got the the blue screen and a constantly spinning gear.
Restarted with Applejack in AUTO. Repairs take longer because of added tasks. Restart no better than before.
Restarted with Diskwarrier. Says it repaired many things. Still unable to complete start up. But I waited longer and saw that the blue screen and spinning gear were acting strangely, The gear would make 5 revolutions and disappear for a few seconds and do the same thing over and over and over and...
Ran DW again. It froze.
One more time with DW. More fixes, still claiming that all was repaired. Except still no complete start up.
Now trying TechTool Pro. Shows another 16+ minutes to complete Surface Scan. It had previously found 1,300+ empty plist files! And many of them were "Global..." plists. I seriously suspect that's why the start ups are never finished. I surmise that many of these "Global" plist files are created and populated when the OS is installed. They are now either corrupt, empty, moved or all three. Basically the OS os "hosed" to use a technical term!
If TTP doesn't change things for the better, I may run DW again, but it is beginning to look like I need to find my Install disks...
Post by: jchuzi on October 16, 2010, 11:42:20 AM
Post by: Xairbusdriver on October 16, 2010, 11:57:54 AM
TTP finished all the tests in its suite and found nothing wrong despite showing all those 'empty' plist files.
And thanks so much for your encouraging words!
Fortunately, I have room on this MBP to hold the entire boot volume on the iMac. I'm probably going to transfer all of the work files to it, assuming FireWire mode works. Then I can think about more disastrous repairs. I know one thing I'll do is mark many of the 'mystery' keys on the MBP! Especially "E" "I" and "O"! 
Post by: jchuzi on October 16, 2010, 12:40:29 PM
Post by: jcarter on October 16, 2010, 03:55:32 PM
Failed hard drive.
Jane
Post by: Xairbusdriver on October 16, 2010, 08:30:21 PM
They promised to give me the old drive back. It was still mounting but not always accessible. Still, would save some time if I can scrape some stuff off there... Guess I'll have to start refilling the piggy bank for the memory upgrade. 
BTW, I gave up on the MBP keyboard! I just plugged in the one I was using on the iMac!
Post by: gunug on October 17, 2010, 08:48:17 PM
As for the soccer ball's problems maybe that it's been jumping around like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nJbNvhC7A8...feature=related
Post by: Paddy on October 17, 2010, 11:13:10 PM
This is one reason I just about always buy Western Digital Scorpio Blacks these days - not only are they reliable, but they have 5 year warranties. I figure they're more likely to be replaced because I've outgrown them, than outlive their warranties. So far, so good.
Post by: jchuzi on October 18, 2010, 05:37:30 AM
Post by: jcarter on October 18, 2010, 07:32:32 AM
Jane
Post by: Paddy on October 18, 2010, 08:13:26 AM
That said, I'm considering a larger WD Scorpio Blue for my Macbook Pro - from reviews and comparisons I've read, they're not all that much slower in use than the Blacks and I'd really like to have the larger capacity, as I could then clone to the MBP from the MacPro. I have to replace a fan in the MBP as soon as I have a little time - it's been noisy for ages - and when I do, I might as well take the few extra steps and install a new drive.
For my Mac Pro, the Hitachis and the WD Black 1TB drives are great.
Post by: Xairbusdriver on October 18, 2010, 03:06:49 PM
The one in the iMac was Western Digital...
Good news is I'm typing this on an iPad at the Apple Store waiting to pick it up. I'm also going to swap the keyboards n Judy's MBP, At least it has AppleCare!
Post by: Xairbusdriver on October 18, 2010, 07:05:11 PM
Nobody's fault but my own. A few months ago, I moved 90% of my apps to the larger of the two partitions on the internal drive; the other one was simply too small! That's one reason I will not be partitioning the new drive.Fortunately 1Password had its backups on the external. Have no idea where the SuperDuper back is, sure doesn't look like I can see it. it may well have been hosed when the disk crashed while SD was running.
Ah, there's another app I need, ASAP, Typinator! URLMPro is up and running, also. later...
Post by: Xairbusdriver on October 19, 2010, 12:04:03 PM
Oops! The "Genius'" had installed the same OS they that had come on the iMac back in 2007...
I never thought of checking!!! Thet could have been part of the problem with getting Judy's MBP to get to one of the printers? 
Anyway, I'll be away while I reinstall Snow Leopard and all the updates...I seem to remember something about needing to have Leopard on first? Surely not, but we'll soon find out...later...this is so much fun. At least every developer has been kind enough to look up my infor and send the needed license key/serial numbers/etc. And you can bet they are all going into 1Password ASAP! 
The backup files for that app were all on the external, fortunately.
Post by: Jack W on October 19, 2010, 02:24:05 PM
Where are your backups???
Post by: Xairbusdriver on October 19, 2010, 04:16:25 PM
I'm slowly downloading third-party apps and stuff as I come across the need. Many of them request a serial number or key. Some of them have that stuff stored in 1Password and it's a simple matter to get it from there. And the 1Password backups are pure.
Just noticed when I setup a spot in 1Password for a new app's info, it automagically find the version number from the installed app. Nice touch! 
Post by: Jack W on October 19, 2010, 05:20:32 PM
That way I can recover at least the vast majority of stuff. Apps, data. etc.
The Time Machine backup is attached to my iMac so I can recover recent stuff I may have mucked up somehow. -
I've used it a couple of times since initiating on August 24th.
But then I have become a backup freak!
FWIW
Jack
Post by: kimmer on October 19, 2010, 07:20:59 PM
For my own edumacation (before I wind up with a toasted drive) ...
- The failed drive was the main HD in your newest iMac?
- Your SD and TM backups were on an external drive that was wiped? Is that drive toast, or just wiped of info?
- Was there *any* advanced warning that either of the drives might fail?
QUOTE
Just noticed when I setup a spot in 1Password for a new app's info, it automagically find the version number from the installed app. Nice touch!
Obviously I need to figure out how to have 1Password do this for me.
Yeesh, this could give a person sleepless nights.
Post by: Xairbusdriver on October 21, 2010, 08:36:51 AM
2. That drive was not damaged. However, there is no trace of any SD backup. I have not yet re-installed SD and that may allow it to be found.
SD happened to be running when the internal drive crashed.From what I understood, Time Machine should have been able to use the previous backups since it identifies it by the hardwired, MAC info of each machine.
In another brain disconnect, I didn't realize that the new drive had Tiger installed instead of Snow Leopard. Whether that had anything to do with the lack of it recognizing the TM backup, I don't know. TM shows the timeline all the way back into 2008, but it will not show anything before the return of the repaired iMac. The TM backup is on an external drive and the items can be viewed in a Finder window. And I have moved a few items back onto the new drive with a simple drag 'n drop in Finder. However, I don't think that is an approved method, but so far, so good. I definitely know that erasing or renaming items in the TM backup via Finder is not safe!
Speaking of "brain disconnects," I am ashamed to admit that I also managed to wipe all my Contact data off my iPhone. I had always told iTunes to sync the data by using what is on the computer as I seldom add any info to the iPhone first. Of course, when I saw the opportunity to sync, I used my old method...which quietly erased all the data on the iPhone since there was nothing on the repaired drive!
Of course, it wasn't my fault, it was the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day and I had already used up too many of them! If there had been more time, I would have had time to actually engage my brain! 
3. No. The first sign of trouble was the "progress bar" in SD not moving. Then other apps started freezing. Since much of any apps code is only loaded when needed, any request for a task for which the code was still on the drive resulted in a freeze of that app. Eventually, nothing was working, including Finder. That finally got my attention and I said, "That's not right. I think there is something wrong?" And, once again, I was right! That, by the way, was the last time I was right...
Amazingly, I got an email from an elderly friend asking if he should take his wife's continuing suggestion that he get a backup drive! I think my stupidity has scared him away from any more advice...
I gotta go enter some more info in Address Book...
Post by: Xairbusdriver on October 21, 2010, 03:15:33 PM
Post by: kimmer on October 21, 2010, 06:01:15 PM
QUOTE
3. No. The first sign of trouble was the "progress bar" in SD not moving.
Oh wow! This is the stuff that nightmares are made of!
Post by: Xairbusdriver on October 21, 2010, 08:22:55 PM
I have managed to get my Address Book re-populated (and back on the iPhone!), and also iCal (although that is little used). Right now I'm stuck with Apple thinking I have a new machine so I can't "Authorize" it until I de-authorize the old one. I know I saw a page at their site that lists all the authorized machines...gotta go find it...