Upgrade downgrade
June 16, 2008
I just totally messed up my computer, and I’m putting the blame squarely on Apple.
I use a MacBook Pro with Leopard 10.5.1 as my operating system. I bought this system in October 2007 after my previous Mac crashed and was unrecoverable (Ack! I still hate writing that). After hearing some mixed reviews of Leopard, I was a little apprehensive, but I’ve been really happy with it in general, and haven’t regretted the upgrade.
Until this week.
My Software Updater alerted me to the 10.5.3 OS update. According to Apple:
The 10.5.3 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.
I’m all for enhancing the stability, compatibility and security of my Mac, so I installed the update. Bad move. First my Quark 7.31 failed on launch. After an hour on the phone with a Quark tech (who was very nice, by the way), I still couldn’t get it to run. I read online that some people who had upgraded to 10.5.3 had conflicts with the printer description files, so I disabled my PPDs and was finally able to launch Quark. I couldn’t print from my computer, but I figured I’d straighten that out when I had a free hour or so. It was annoying and sucked up a good couple of hours of my time, but at least I could keep working.
Until two days later, when both my Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3 also failed at launch. And I couldn’t open my Print/Fax preference pane. And I was on deadline.
Now I’m no technician, but I’ve been a Mac user for almost 20 years, and in my experience when you change your software and your computer starts acting funky, there’s something wrong with the software. The programs I use for my work are the standard professional grade graphic design programs. A large part of Mac’s user base is made up of graphics professionals. And no one else had this problem with the 10.5.3 upgrade? I find it hard to believe.
So with my computer effectively out of commission, what did I do (after the obvious: yell, stomp around, curse Apple and eat chocolate)?
First, I started up from the System Installer CD and ran Disk Doctor on my hard drive. The drive verified, and I repaired all of my permissions. Then I tested the programs again.
Still broken.
Next I backed up my system with Time Machine. I use a LaCie Little Disk drive for this (obsessively), and it’s the best $120-ish I’ve ever spent on my computer. Then I started up from the System Installer disk again, and restored the last full backup I had with 10.5.1 running. This was about two weeks old. Ordinarily I would be weeping at the loss of two full weeks of work, but wait! Since I had just backed up, Time Machine had all of my newest files archived. I was able to transfer all of my files, and didn’t lose a thing except for four hours of my time (which is very annoying, but considering the alternative, acceptable).
So in the end, Apple screwed me, but Apple also saved me. The morals of the story are 1) don’t upgrade your operating system until you do some research and make sure it won’t cause you any problems, and 2) back up, back up, back up. Time Machine is the easiest and best backup method I’ve ever used and it rescued me (and also my MacBook which would have been headed for the recycler if I couldn’t get the damn thing to work.)
I also washed my cell phone in my pants pocket and had my Internet connection go down for 24 hours last week. It wasn’t a banner week, technologically speaking.
