I came this close to having a computer disaster yesterday because of a library school assignment. Currently the class has to install Greenstone on their computers and then create a digital library collection. Greenstone is an open source digital library software created by the New Zealand Digital Library Project at the University of Waikato. It is a well respected piece of software and used world-wide for digital library collections both large and small. It is multi-platform so I can run it on my Mac.
I was expecting problems from the start because my professor made a remark in his lecture that Mac users might have some difficulty. But the download went fine and I got no errors on the installation. This isn’t bad at all! I shouldn’t have gotten cocky.
When I installed the application the default file path that came up was to my user folder where all my documents and files are stored. I preferred to have it install into my application folder where all the rest of the software on my computer lives. When it installed, however, it did not create its own folder or a nice little icon like applications usually do, no, it spread its pieces throughout the applications folder. How annoying! I wanted it all tidy together so I knew what files belonged to Greenstone.
One of the files was an uninstall file so I figured I would just uninstall it and then create a folder and install everything to that folder. On Macs to uninstall all you have to do is drag an application to the trash but this was not a regular application, I had no executable file to drag to the trash. So I clicked on the uninstall file.
Big mistake.
Instead of just deleting Greenstone, it started deleting everything in my application folder! From the time I noticed that things did not look right, figured out what was happening and canceled the uninstall, six of my applications including Firefox, my address book and my calendar were gone.
When I was in charge of technology at my former job and people would come to me in a panic after a disaster I was always very calm and reassuring and sympathetic. But when it is my own disaster, not so much. I stared at my computer, burst into tears and began yelling f***! over and over. My Bookman came running. He talked me down to a sullen pout. We called the Apple Store to find out if they could look at my computer right then but they couldn’t. Then my Bookman said, “you back up your computer, right.”
Doh! Yes I do, I back it up regularly in case of horrible disasters. It took me a few tries to figure out how to restore something from my back up because I’ve never had to, but once that was figured out all but two applications that come pre-installed on a Mac were restored (I don’t use them and they are on the Mac install disk so I don’t include them in the back up).
It was only 8:30 but I couldn’t bear trying to continue working after that. So I put my computer away and read Woman in Black for the rest of the evening. That was the best thing to help me relax from the near disaster.
Sometimes the things you learn in library school have nothing to do with being a librarian. Tonight I will try again from scratch. And I will try not to be grumpy about the fact that this assignment is due in two weeks and only worth 15% of my grade. A lot of trouble for a little assignment.
Hey I was just wondering where you are going to library school? I just started! You probably mention it somewhere else in the blog, but I just didn’t notice. . .
Oh what a story! I was so relieved that it had a happy-ish ending. Computers are a real pain in the neck because when they go down, they take so much down with them. Did I ever tell you about the time i lost my first 4,000 word essay for my M.Phil? I’d loaded it, unbeknownst to me, onto a corrupt disc, and saved it from there back to the hard drive. I thought I’d lost it forever and would have given up the course, I think, if it hadn’t been for the father of a friend, who took the disc onto his old BBC computer and coaxed the information out of it bite by bite. I had it all back apart from the conclusion. But it is the kind of event that sticks in the memory forever more! I’ll cross my fingers that all goes smoothly tonight.
So glad you had a backup! Grr! I do not work well with computer panic situations. I hope the projects go well. *Sending happy thoughts!*
Oh, that reminds me of the trouble my room-mate faced after she downloaded a file from the Internet and her computer crashed! She lost quite a bit of data in the process.
Whoa. Which is why I still use a paper calendar, and my address book has real pages. It looks a little sloppy – but it won’t disappear into cyberspace either. I’m glad disaster was averted, dear heart.
computer problems cost me a D in college (because it lost my ENTIRE SEMESTER’S WORTH OF WORK) and I have never forgiven them. I love email and I generally like computers but they seem to cause lots of stress as well. I hate sitting at mine all day, every day.
Oh — it lost all the work one week before everything was due. I had backed up, but then the disc (remember Zip disks?) failed as well. What a nightmare.
Oh noes! How rude of Greenstone to delete files that weren’t its own! Don’t Macs have something like Windows Restore? If I cock up my computer I just run Windows Restore and it puts everything back the way it was, without losing any edits to my documents. It has saved my butt on more than one occasion. I’m glad you and your computer recovered.
My Guru says if you are running Time Machine (part of Leopard Operating System and from thereon) on the Mac you can restore to any point in time. Otherwise there are ways through Disk Utility. (He does all my backups and installs so this is all second hand!)
I have read a couple of your posts Stefanie and have enjoyed them. (I am in Australia and this last semester have been an online tutor for a librarianship course here. It’s been great fun talking to students and keeping my brain in gear)
Oh, I’m happy it didn’t end up worse! For once I will be a silver lining kind of person and rejoice that you got a (I hope) guilt-free evening of reading out of the deal.
Oh, sorry about that! I’m glad you got everything back and complete disaster was averted.
Lia, I am attending Drexel University in Pennsylvania’s online program. What school are you attending future colleague?
Litlove, oh my, a 4,000 word essay? I would have really been in tears over that one and sunk into despair. Very lucky your friend’s father was able to recover most of it for you. The reinstall went very smoothly and I got the program running without a glitch. What a relief.
Rebecca, thanks! I get frustrated when computer things go wrong because for some reason I think they shouldn’t happen to me! But at least I also know enough to be able to figure things out most of the time.
Hazra, oh internet viruses are evil. I know lots of people who have lots huge chunks of data because of them.
Grad, heh, yeah you don’t have to worry about paper copies going kablooey. Though I lost a paper address book once and had to reconstruct it from scratch so maybe it doesn’t hurt to back up paper files either
Daphne, oh my heart goes out to you over that disaster. I do remember zip disks. I actually have an external one tucked away in a closet because it may come in handy sometime.
Sylvia, you know, I don’t know if Macs have something like Windows restore, I’ve never lost anything before so had no need to find out. I should probably investigate that because it would be a good piece of information to have handy for just-in-case future issues.
Charlotte, thank you. I did enjoy reading the rest of the evening without a pang of guilt
Dorothy, thanks. I’m very glad I got everything back too and now I also know how not to uninstall the software when I am done with it!
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
YIKES!
That entire episode……. the moment when you realized stuff is going down the drain there……. oh my, I myself was having heart palpitations.
What a HORRID feeling.
I am so glad that all was restored.
In the end, the best thing to have going for you in these circumstances, is a Mac, truth be known.
Polprav, hello! Yes, you may quote as long as there is a link. Thanks!
Cipriano, sorry to cause you heart palpitations! I am relieved I was able to restore everything. And yeah, even though having a Mac for school sometimes makes things more difficult, I am not about to go back to Windows!
My heart was seriously pounding during this post. Hard and loud!!
Oh, how stressful this must have been! I too was stressed while reading your post even though the title said “near disaster”. I once saw an ad for a computer service company that was imitated the tobacco package warning (Smoking Kills), it said: “Computer problems don’t kill, but they can be bloody annoying”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_packaging_warning_messages#France