gwyn: (al cheers)
gwyn ([personal profile] gwyn) wrote2006-07-18 08:54 am

Dooomed, we're all doooomed

Well, as advised by my friend and former IT guru at my old office, I let the surface scan run all night and all this morning through Tech Tools, to see what I could find on the failed hard drive. I finally gave up just now, because I can't stand listening to this noise anymore of the drive just chug... chug... chug... It's too annoying to have to work in here and listen to the clacking of the yellowjackets in the nest above me and this drive just groaning under the strain.

Weirdly, though, last night iTunes let me copy over some music to the iPod, so I spent the evening doing that, though I'm sure I missed a lot of stuff that I wasn't keeping track of. In my opinion, iTunes' greatest failing is that they don't let you sort by date added. That would make my life so much easier. ETA: Life can be easier! Thanks to the mysterious M for the advice on how to make iTunes sort by date. Many, many thanks!

Anyway, I keep all the music on the external drive, since the internal drive isn't that big, and I don't know if it was having the app itself on the iMac, but the music files on the external drive, that made it possible, but it's a relief to at least have saved a bit of my music to the iPod. What I'm having trouble finding the Apple support files, though, is how I would go about making those files accessible again when I get a new external drive. iTunes thinks they're there, of course, but can't find them if I turn off the external drive, so if it thinks they're there... do I just wipe out everything, and copy over the iPod contents... or what? I'm bewildered, and the support info doesn't seem to address such a weird situation.

I guess I have to lose the working files for the Bride of remix and start over again. And buy a new external drive (not feeling really good about the LaCie/Maxtor folks right now), which... not in the budget and kind of a hit I didn't need on top of the full copper repipe coming possibly next week, and the extermintor arriving tomorrow. But I have to do it, since I have a bunch of discs to make for the con. And say bye-bye to my working files for the BSG and LoM vids. I will try some of the suggestions people made, like freezing and dropping and stuff, but right now, I have to get a new drive and get cracking on some of these things. Playing with it will have to wait.

But I love the TT reports on the surface scan -- "If bad blocks are reported, the only cure is to reinitialize the drive with the option to zero all data. First back up any data since this will erase the drive." Yes, and if I could do this, I wouldn't be running this test for over 16 hours and getting nowhere.

In other words, I'm fracked, but I gotta get moving so no time to mourn the loss.

Sorting by date added....Result!

(Anonymous) 2006-07-18 04:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Gwyn, m'dear,
iTunes *will*, indeed, allow you to sort by date added; simply go to the Edit: View Options menu item and you'll get a checklist for the active playlist. check the "Date Added" box and Robert is your mothers brother.
M (colleague of emmarytz)

Re: Sorting by date added....Result!

[identity profile] gwyn-r.livejournal.com 2006-07-18 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Many, many thanks. In all the iTunes updating, I had never seen that this ability was added somewhere along the line, and I feel a bit like Dorothy -- I always had the ability after some point in the updating process, just never knew I could tap my heels together three times.

[identity profile] morgandawn.livejournal.com 2006-07-18 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I have an older version of Itunes and it does sort by date added. I had to go to Prefernces or something and then enable it - then scroooolllll to the right to see it.

sad to hear about hard drive issues.

before you hook up your IPOD read some more - if the music is all on the IPOD and not the hard drive, the IPOD will try to synch with the nothinginess and you'll lose your music. There are third party apps that allow you to copy music *from* your IPOD to your computer.

[identity profile] gwyn-r.livejournal.com 2006-07-18 05:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Wait, are you saying that the iPod will wipe itself out because the original files are inaccessible if I take this current, failed drive out of the equation?

Crap... because dude, my experience so far with third party apps has been pretty much them 50, me nothing. I think the only thing that has ever worked for me right is Fetch, and even that sometimes fails me.

[identity profile] morgandawn.livejournal.com 2006-07-18 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
what I am saying is you should look into this. I know only enough to know there may be an issue.

[identity profile] gwyn-r.livejournal.com 2006-07-18 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I appreciate the thought, but... I haven't got a clue where to look into it or what to look for. Every search I've made about this returns little to no results at apple's support, and what few results I get, no matter how creative my search, are turning up nothing. I'm sure there are people who've had to replace their iTunes files from their iPod, but I appear to be unable to find information about how. I guess it's a fish I'll have to fry later.

[identity profile] gwyn-r.livejournal.com 2006-07-18 06:17 pm (UTC)(link)
By which I mean, since I can at least play the iTunes files at the moment, I'm not going to worry about it till I get these other issues sorted out.
ext_2366: (by sdwolfpup: it'll be easy again someda)

[identity profile] sdwolfpup.livejournal.com 2006-07-18 04:21 pm (UTC)(link)
I thought you couldn't sort by date added either; having this information is going to make my life so much easier. Man.

I am really sorry to hear about the harddrive crash, though. As you said in your last post, I am totally one of those people who thinks it will never happen, and someday, I just know - bam! I should make back-ups today.

[identity profile] morgandawn.livejournal.com 2006-07-18 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
check out my recent post about online backup services,

[identity profile] gwyn-r.livejournal.com 2006-07-18 05:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I have thought off and on about the offsite backup thing, but I'm looking for a solution to the vid files issue more than anything -- and my vid files usually end up in the 20-30 GB range. When I'm working on a project, I don't know if any way to handle such large files without paying through the nose, and honestly, I'd hoped the external hard drive would be the backup I needed. Hah. Well, it's something I have to look into. But first, I have to worry about these projects.

[identity profile] morgandawn.livejournal.com 2006-07-18 05:52 pm (UTC)(link)
there is a site in my links that will offer up to 40GB storage for around $5/month. It may take 4-5 days to upload but incremental uploads should be faster.

[identity profile] kadymae.livejournal.com 2006-07-18 09:54 pm (UTC)(link)
You have my deepest sympathies.