I’ll start this off by telling everyone my bad news, my MacBook Pro seems to of died. The hard drive is clicking, and it’s failing to boot. I’ve also got a suspicion that there could be more faulty, as I’ve tried some stuff which should still work with a failed hard drive, but with no luck. I’m not coming to any conclusions yet, because I haven’t had a proper research yet, but I’ll see what I can do.
That leaves me with only two real devices I can use, my iPhone and my iPad (which I’m using to write this). I suppose my iPad lets me still carry on writing, browsing the web, watch videos, etc. But I feel limited when using these devices, in a way that just doesn’t happen with a Mac.
If I deem the repair of my Mac to be not worth it, then my only choice is to upgrade. And at the minute my favourite is the 13″ Retina MacBook Pro, I would have to go to a store to compare the models though. I would only upgrade at the end of this month, so as to give me time to check if I can fix my current Mac, and to decide on upgrade if necessary.
Time without a laptop could be beneficial for my iPad though, as I’ve probably not been using it to its full potential. And with iOS 9 already installed on it, I can test the new features designed to make the iPad more of a device aimed at content creation, not just consumption. Two main things I can’t do on an iPad however are developing apps and games! Two things that I very much enjoy doing.
Luckily for me, I have a NAS drive which I have Time Machine on taking backups. I can’t say it’s been doing them regularly, but I have a backup from a few weeks ago that will be more than sufficient. Plus there’s the added benefit of iCloud, which hosts all of my music, photos, videos, etc. So I’m not worrying too much about losing my files.
I do think a new MacBook would be useful to me though, as it allows me to have a fresh start albeit a forced one. It would probably be more of a psychological clean slate, but it would allow me to focus on what I really need in a device and not mess this one up. The new models also come with integrated flash storage, so that is a major advantage over the basic one my current Mac. Then there is the retina screen, better graphics, better processor, so it would put necessarily be a like for like replacement.
I think I’ll have to re-evaluate my backup strategy as well. I’ll set up my Time to do backups more regularly, but I also want to add a second layer of protection at least. This could be where a fresh start would come in handy, as it would allow me to start using a service like Dropbox, to host all my valuable files for my blogs and also university. And that would be a lot easier to set up if I started from scratch.
Well there are my thoughts on the situation, sorry if I’ve bored you in the mean time. But I thought I needed to let it all out.
If you have any suggestions on the repair, which model to upgrade to, or even ideas for how I will set up a replacement, then please post a comment. I’m always eager to listen to other opinions.