Mac Disk Panic!
Well, this happens to everyone…mine happened yesterday night.
The Main mac stopped working. It simply stopped booting up – got stuck at login window and the kernel crashed. I found that the disk itself is doing just fine. but somehow, the OS had gotten corrupted – either due to a bad Apple update, or some other reason. I had a few options:
- Debug and try and fix the issue: I tried several things such as using the Install disk to open Terminal, then re-install select patches (2009-01 Security update, combo update etc) , Using the Disk Utility – tried to fix permissions, repair disk and such, Safe Mode reboot, etc. – none of these worked.
- Re-install OS X Tiger: I wanted to use this as the last option. Also i found that since i have the Leopard upgrade disk and not a full retail disk, I had to first install Tiger and then upgrade it. I was unable to install a fresh Leopard on blank (or reformatted) hard disk.
- Mount the main disk in “Target” mode on my Macbook, then do a Leopard upgrade again : Again – did not work due to the reason explained above.
- Restore data from Backups: Well, i do have backups. I use Super Duper! software and backup weekly from my main Mac onto a NAS (Ximeta Network storage drives) and once a month onto a Firewire portable disk that i store off-site. The fact of the matter is that i had never restored data either using the software or from the network. I never knew if this works. Plus, since the backups are on my network storage, I might have to remove the disk from the NAS – either replace the internal drive with its clone, or mount it via Firewire so that i can boot from it. Although there is an option in the start up choices to boot from the network, i have not tried i. Luckily, I have a Macbook as well – So, here is what i did – I first mounted the corrupted mac in “Target” mode on my Macbook, and using a copy of the Super Duper! restored the backup files from NAS. I was able to restore data as of last Sunday.
Once done, I had to resynchronize my emails (Luckily – i store them online on my offshore Read more
Lesson from “The American Idol”
Watching “The American Idol” today (Yes, i do sometimes watch this…) made me realize a valuable lesson that probably applies to Photography as well. Especially when it comes to “timing” about answering the question that we always have – “Are you ready to be Professional/Solo show” etc…
You get only one chance to impress. It is very very critical to do everything right to make through it. You do one thing wrong – you pretty much blew it. Just as selecting that right song, the right dress/shirts/hairdo etc is simply as critical as everything else in “The American Idol”, it is just as critical to have everything about your photographs/theme right for that show or taking your portfolio to a critique/review. Even the slightest blemish on your print, tonality differences between a singular theme can make a big difference. Having your story right for the theme is very critical as well – so as the Artist statement and most importantly showing up at the right time for your opening ceremony!
Just my 2 cents.
Its been a while post..
So, its been a long while since i wrote anything on this blog….fact of the matter is that; while the blog was kinda great thing in the beginning – I have found that maintaining it is very difficult. It takes a lot of dedication and most importantly “material”! Anyhoo – here is an update on all the stuff happening about Photography in my life…. Read more
Translator
By N2H
Powered by FireStats