i thought everything was going fine in my data rescue and restore project. i had cloned the drive, recovered data, reinstalled the os, and was transferring over files for iphoto and itunes. i have decided to make the laptop a multimedia center and have it focus mainly on iphoto and itunes. it really can't hold much else because half the drive is dedicated to itunes. i have a plain 40gb ipod not used to hold anything but music and it's full. the source for the iphoto files were from the recovered data and the source for the itunes files were from twiddle thumbs's ipod as i figured it might be faster and 100% in tact to just get them from the ipod instead of trying to recover 40gb of music. in doing this i realized two things.

1. somewhere down the line the computers have different versions of iphoto (laptop 4.0.3, mac mini 5.0.3, imac 2!) and i can't open my pics on the laptop because the database file was last modified with a newer version of iphoto than what is on the laptop. this came about because i had opened the photos from the clone on twiddle thumbs's mac mini before i reinstalled os x on the laptop. i don't think i had made changes but iphoto must've made a new database file. i connected the mac mini to the laptop like it was just another external hard drive and transferred over files that had been recovered from the clone. for iphoto, i could've just recovered from the clone direct onto the laptop again but at this point i just wanted to quickly get in some files and see if everything is ok.

it should be noted that on the mac mini i noticed a glitch where the data for 2 days was messed up. the pics are there, the comments, keywords, and albums. it's just that for those 2 days, it looks like it had loaded the thumbnails for one but was missing the connection to the original file even thought all the files are there in the iphoto folders. for the other day, well nothing was showing at all. i was able to manually correct the 2 days that were messed up because i had copy saved on another hard drive that iphoto was happy with drag and drop style importing. i then had to manually enter the comments and keywords again but that was no big deal because luckily i didn't take too many photos on those 2 days.

2. i didn't do all the tests i should've the past few days when testing the integrity of the laptop's hard drive. i never bothered to do an ata smart detector test! there is a test with disk warrior and i don't know why but the smart one is the one i didn't bother to do. now that's dumb! i had read about a free one in macworld called smartreporter so i downloaded that. i only decided to do this because the laptop got slow like syrup and it was déjà vu . so i ran the disk warrior smart test and then smartreporter to get a second opinion. my drive failed both tests. yeah, it's fucked.

it is time to fork over some cash and buy a new drive for it. the cost would've been about the same for applecare warranty extension. yeah, i probably should've gotten that. during the course of my 1 year warranty i was heavily preoccupied with going to new zealand and then trying to be frugal with my funds so that i could do as many things as possible there. somewhere down the line, applecare slipped my mind. all i wanted to do was go home so i concentrated on having funds to pay for a plane ticket change and money to spend in my last days in new zealand on a road trip. i had completely forgotten about my laptop's impending warranty expiration. looking at it now though, if the hard drive is the only issue, then the cost of applecare and the cost of a replacement drive is about the same. i still would've had to pay for the external drive and recovery software i bought because applecare does not cover data loss.

i don't mind opening up computers and changing parts. i do mind opening really tiny computers because they're very sensitive. (once i opened up a small pc and cut my hands because the thing was so tiny inside that there was hardly room for adult hands to get in there.) these days, computers are getting smaller and smaller that eventually i probably won't mess with any at all. the only thing i'll do with my laptop is change the battery! i do not want to open it up and risk damaging anything, even slots i don't use. if i'm gonna change the drive, better to not just replace it but upgrade it. i'm pretty sure it was only 5400rpm. i bought the laptop bare bones on sale at the campus bookstore because it's what i could afford. again, the nz factor. i might as well do some more modifications while someone is performing surgery on it. i seriously need a ram upgrade. it has a pathetic memory of 256mb ram. for just a few hundred dollars, i'll have a stronger computer. yeah, it's worth it. i've never been an upgrades person because i was just too "kechi" (stingy) with my money. i'd rather it go to this or that. i can't do that anymore. especially not when you consider how much value i place on the files in the computer and on the computer itself. the lesson is to not be kechi with maintenance costs of basic items that you need/use in life. as long as i see it that way instead of as luxury materials, then i think it will be easier for me to spend money that way. especially if i stop buying the junk that i used to buy on a constant basis. i told myself i wouldn't do that when i left santa cruz. time to live a minimalist life.