Entertainment For Lively Minds
Tech help required
Posted by Bruised Mike on 20 September 2009 - 7:25pm.
I am having a shocker. First the hard disk dies on my computer.Let'snot talk about backup, right.
Now the reinstall of iTunes isdriving me crazy. 2 problems that all you techies out there may be able to help with.
1. I can't get inro the Music Store, which in tiurn means I can't get the Word podcast. Just vaguely blank tables appear, not like on the old computer at all.
2. I can't even download my own cds! There is something about bit rate not being compatible. Where do I change this?
Any help would be gratefully received.
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Don't panic!
Even a dead hard disk can often yield up its data. Exactly how is it dead? Does it spin up at all?
HDD
It won't allow the computer to turn on and so retrieving data from it is impossible.
I have solved the iTunes Store problem, I have to type a subject into Search to get it going. I still cannot transfer CDs to the Library though, getting the incompatible bit rate message. Any kind souls able to offer guidance?
Have you tried putting the drive
in an external caddy and accessing it that way? (i.e. not using it as the boot drive).
It's a laptop
so does that make a difference? And no one seems to be coming up with an answer to this "bit rate incompatible" message. I shall ask Mr Google right now to see if he knows.
No difference at all.
You can still rip the bloody thing out, jam it in a caddy and access it as if it were just another drive. If you can get that far, you can batter it with data recovery software, and there's a good chance, if it spins up, that your files will be recoverable.
A little caddy for a 2 1/2 inch lappy drive will set you back about a tenner, and come with a USB lead. Plug the sucker in and have a go. Most of the recovery software worth trying can be acquired with a modicum of effort.
Strokes chin ...
I thought i'd come across most problems with iTunes but yours has beaten me. Google aside , i'd uninstall it and download again as it seems to be corrupted, especially if it was fine before your HDD failure.
Have you replaced the broken HDD ?
Stimpy is keeping quiet on the subject of backups
but his sitting here shaking his head sadly.
My one comment: It looks like you can get an external 500gb USB disk for around £50.
and try Rebit software or a Rebit drive
which makes backing up idiot proof. And I'm a good test. Amazon sell them.
If you're running on OSX Leopard...
then the built in Time Machine will do it all for you. Just plug in your external HDD and you're done.
Seriously, if you're running Leopard, there's no excuse for not backing up.
Mmmmmmmm. Leopard.
Had a play with a Mac Book yesterday. I know what I'm getting when my current Windoze lappy dies.
You could always try Linux!
I got fed up with my laptop running like a dog with no legs on Vista and took the plunge with Ubuntu. Now I have a laptop that doesn't spend most of its life sitting at 100% CPU and as a bonus I got a load of disk space back that Vista was reserving for system restore points. I've even got Spotify running under Wine.
I still have a windoze desktop for iTunes and the FPO :-)
I've got a dual boot box with Mandriva on it.
The Windoze boot is to good ol' XP.
I bought the FPO a new desktop last year, and it cam with Vista Business Edition. Oh dear. When I can find a spare afternoon (probably when the swine flu gets to me) I'll blitz the lot and put her back on XP too.
Yep
another £30 of value tucked into the "overpriced" Apple.
"Overpriced" Apple
Zzzzzzzzzzzz....
I use Windows (work) and Mac (choice).
I find it brilliant value. I chose to go over to Mac 3 years ago. I couldn't return to Windows.
I wasn't being ironic
Timemachine is brilliant and it costs you £30 to replicate it on a PC with Rebit (which is brilliant as well).
I've had a bad experience with Time machine
Well, the external hard drive to be precise. They don't like being dropped from a great height....
2.5 inch drives
are probably more robust than 3.5 inch and there are some that are more bomb proof than others. Stimpy will tell you (rightly) to run with 2 and keep them in different locations.
Rebit looks great
Shame it won't do external USB drives as that is where all my music, photos and documents are nowadays. Keep them all well away from your C: drive on a Windoze machine as you know you will inevitably have to wipe it clean at some point.
I am currently using acronis true image for backups which seems to work much better than ghost which I had before.
The kit is very good value indeed, from what I've seen.
It's a pity Apple are farting about with the basics of the OS though (slack File Permissions behaviour on even the latest Snow Leopard release), as it makes me hesitate to make the change. Having said that, Windows is so prone to its own cruft, and emulation is now so good that there really isn't any compelling reason to stay with Microshaft for much longer.
If you want the podcast, you could...
get it direct from the feedburner feed
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/WordPodcast
I know that doesn't help with iTunes, though. Soz