Saturday, November 17, 2012

My BIG Mac problems

I so dreaded the day when I'd have to get a new computer. Last January when Apple told me I'd eventually have to replace my dinosaur I just had hope that I'd be remarried before that happened. For the financial strain alone and the headache of the entire process. On my Mac I use Adobe Illustrator and a software for my vinyl cutter called Cut Studio. On Halloween all hell broke loose. I thought I had it fixed with connecting to the internet via wireless... that lasted one week to the day then went out. I just want to jot down how EVERY step of this process I have hit opposition. I can not believe how monstrous this has been for me and it's the fact that this is central to my business and is vital to income that we need that makes the situation SO incredibly stressful.

Halloween- internet stopped communicating with my computer via usb hot spot
2 days later Apple Store- associate told me he'd never seen anything like it (the issues) and he couldn't get it to connect wirelessly to their network or usb or via ethernet. After an hour his boss did something and it connected wirelessly. I came home and ordered wireless internet through ATT.
ATT painted a pretty & lovely picture of how easy it would be to just "switch" on the service election day and didn't mention I would need to be home and that a man would dig my back yard up and paint a bright orange line back there or be in my home (no shower for me and no make-up) for over an hour. I was told on the phone I could have a modem OR router. I secured a router but was told by dude that I HAD to have a modem. So I got one then found out it wasn't compatible to the ATT network. Had to go the next day and purchase a modem/router.
Connected to internet Wednesday (week after Halloween). Worked fine for one whole week.
Week later I lost all connections to internet on my computer. It wouldn't connect wirelessly, by usb, or by ethernet direct. I called att to make sure I was doing it right and had two different departments tell me I had the wrong number. After talking to the right girl she confirmed what I already knew and it wasn't their device but my dinosaur. :(
I then had lined up help to have men in my church who know what they're doing help me. No one could figure it out.
Jared got wind of my problem and offered to go with me to help me get a new one.
Thursday I was going to do that & was told to back up everything onto an external hard drive. Time Machine told me if I wanted to use the hard drive I plugged in that I'd have to wipe it clean. I had files on it and pictures so I went and bought a new one.
Got home and attempted to use Time Machine to back it up and it failed continuously three times. It was then that I decided to just save certain files and photos. 2 hours alone just for my pics.
I was also cleaning up my computer that day as well and somehow DELETED core components to my Illustrator program which in turn shut me down for business until I could connect to the internet to download plug ins for it. That computer won't connect. I haven't been able to cut vinyl since Thursday.
That night we went to Best Buy to get an iMac and they were sold out. They are in a transition and are out of the old model and waiting for the new to be released. ALL of Houston are sold out.

I laughed.

We listened to all of our options then we made a purchase.
Late that night a nice man came over and attempted to help me get the old one hooked to the internet and also get my new system set up. 3 hours later we still weren't connected to the internet and when he left he set up the old computer to transfer over to the new. That was 11:30pm.
He also told me he'd never seen anything like it. I should get a reward for screwing up my computer so bad. :(
14 hours later that transfer was still telling me "14 minutes remaining" and after asking I found out it had failed. I attempted that migration process 3 more times and each time failed. Each time I tried transferring over less and less but it didn't matter.
Went to bed Friday night with nothing new accomplished except I did turn on the new computer and start working from scratch to re-build settings and get myself familiar with it.
Saturday I tried the migration assistant again. Fail. Again. Fail. Again. Fail. I was totally done. Want to throw my hands up.
Got the suggestion from Bro Willis to download a temporary file of Illustrator that is good for 30 days then we can figure out getting my permanent one on in that time. Tried to download that three times and failed. A trial version! I researched and found my new system is compatible so it didn't make any sense. But in true fashion it kind of does! Everything has gone against me every step of the way. Well, there have been equally as good blessings along the way too.
I finally found a temporary version that I downloaded a different way that finished uploading at about 10 tonight (Saturday). Next I have to figure out how to get Cut Studio downloaded on here without a cd drive. I have the cd download for it but this new system doesn't have a cd drive. I can't cut vinyl until I have it.
Tonight I picked up the Office download from Jared & Shannon so I can get my paperwork back up.
Slowly progress is being made.
I still need to get my license from Adobe for my version of Illustrator. It was initially a download from online so I don't have the number I need. Of course.
I can see in the near future when I am up and running again that this new set up is going to be bigger and better than ever before and will be worth all of this I'm sure.

I have to say that my visiting teacher and friend, Tiffanie, has given me support this entire time. She calls me often to check on my computer progress and has offered help and solutions everyday. Her husband has been on the phone with me regarding issues and has given me advice and help. Brother Willis (from church) took time away from his family after staying late at work Thursday to help me with the beast. He was so kind. Jared and Shannon gave me such a touching gift of my new computer. They enabled me to provide for my family. The most touching part about what he did was that he didn't skimp on anything. He picked out the nicest equipment. That's what penetrated my heart. He gave me something that doesn't benefit him at all AND he incurred the debt of the purchase. He didn't cut corners and didn't skimp on cost. I feel inadequate of such a generous gift and it taught me a lot. I am so grateful. The kind acts I have received go beyond the opposition that is so CLEARLY evident in my life the past week. There is a force that does not want me to do this. Makes sense. I am a stay at home mom and this is my livelihood to support my babies. If I can't do this at home I have to go outside the home.
As I type I have two downloads going to restore programs.
Slowly and surely.
I WILL be back up and running soon.
I WILL.
I still love Macs, even when mine is a BIG problem.

No comments:

Post a Comment