BACK UP!

While we were hoping...desperately hoping...that Drivecrash.com would be the answer to our iMac nightmares, our hard drive's mechanical failure is more complicated than we had ever imagined.

And more expensive.

The $350 -- $1800 that we were originally quoted (a safe range for probably 95% of the hard drive failures that they see) has been blown out the window. After quickly looking at our drive, the estimate was upwardly revised to between $1200 and $2900. They won't know for sure until they get it in to the lab. There is, of course, a $500 lab fee. And there is no guarantee they'll be able to recover our data. (excuse me while I get sick)

I'm not sure what Noah has decided, although I suspect we'll be taking the "second opinion" path before making a real decision.

Of course, Mac won't give us a new hard drive until we relinquish the old one. Which I won't, of course, until we recover our precious photos, music and documents.

I will never, EVER, buy another Mac again. No new iPod. No iPhone is in my future. No more iTunes gift cards will be given by me.

While I'm sure that many have been using Macs for years, without problems, ours has been a source of headaches. Nothing with this computer has been simple, and if I ever have to deal with another "genius," well, I'll ask for Mensa documentation first.

Sorry, Mr. Jobs, but there are many reasons why I hate your machines. Here are but a few.

1. While you advertise one click operations, blogging from a Mac nearly requires a computer science degree. I've actually had to use the HTML coding that I learned while taking a website class back in 2001. Blogging from a PC is sssoooooo much easier. Even my Mac-enthusiast friends will agree.
2. Corporate America doesn't exactly support Macs. Because we've had a Mac at home, I've not been able to log on to my office's network. This has meant more than a handful of late-night Sunday "office dash" trips to enter my time before the midnight Sunday deadlines. If I had a PC at home, I could have done it while getting my weekly fix of In Plain Sight (awesome show, btw).
3. After some 20 years of PC ownership (I can even remember back to my Atari computer!), I HAVE NEVER HAD A HARD DRIVE FAIL BEFORE. Enough said.
4. Mac employees are, for the most part, snobs. Do they really think that they're so much better, and more cool, that the rest of us? They have the worst return policies in the galaxy, awful warranty policies, and the folks behind the genius bar are anything but.
5. Don't even get me started on Apple Care. You cannot make appointments over the phone; they only accept them online. Which would probably be OK if your computer actually worked....and, of course, if your computer worked YOU WOULDN'T NEED AN APPOINTMENT!

Perhaps I can somehow convince Barack Obama -- who, by the way, is so going to be elected in November....or I'm moving my entire family to Canada -- to include a "Consumers Who Have Been Wronged by Mac Bill of Rights" on to his official platform.

Until then, please use my hardship for your own gain. PLEASE go home and back up your computer hard drive(s). Back up early. Back up often!