So, it finally happened to me (again). A Mac died on me without any kind of backup for it. I couldn’t be more disappointed in myself for letting it happen too.

The family 17″ iMac G5 iSight went belly up after my daughter accidentally shut it down hard. None of the voodoo I’ve learned in my 20 years as a Mac user could get the internal disk to be seen again. Open Firmware resets, SMU resets, PRAM zaps, swift kicks, small animal sacrifices. Nothing even made the drive spin up, which means one of two things. The drive has a bad case of sticksion, or the drive controller on the motherboard is the problem (others have reported the problem with this iMac model). If it’s the latter, it looks like I’ll end up with a stylish doorstop, and I’ll be buying new hardware this weekend. I haven’t decided if I want to tackle tearing the machine apart to replace the drive. Having done it once for someone else, it was about as enjoyable as pulling teeth.

Anyway… If you ever needed proof that you should be backing up your ENTIRE system on a regular basis, let this post be what gets you to make a change. My wife and kids have lost years worth of photos, emails, school projects, music and heaven knows what else. It’s never a matter of IF it will happen, it’s a matter of WHEN. Don’t gamble like I did. Get a backup plan in place and stick to it faithfully. I’m wishing I had…

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