Sometimes, when you hard drive unexpectedly crashes, it’s time for a new computer…
And that’s what happened to me on Sunday. My trusty iMac, just four years old, died in its sleep. The hard drive went completely kaput. My husband Bill and I went out and bought a new iMac. This one is bigger and sexier than the other one was. I didn’t actually want the 27 inch screen, but it was either that or waiting for a new machine to be shipped to me. And I know there are far too many people out there in Internetland who are hanging on my every word. (yes, I’m kidding)
Anyway, changing computers is a pain in the ass, even if the new machine is sleek and sexy. One major project I had was migrating my enormous music library. I use iTunes and Amazon music and both were conducive to transferring the library. But the bulk of my music was ripped from CDs. Fortunately, I backed up some of the music on an external hard drive and almost my entire library of over 13,000 songs was on my iPod. I also had a new app at my disposal, which I bought last week. Macroplant has a tool called iExplorer, which I bought so I could save an especially touching voice mail I got from my mother a couple of months ago. I know there are probably cheaper and easier apps out there, but this one worked great for my needs. And after I downloaded my mom’s message, it came in handy again, because it allowed me to move all of those ripped CDs from my iPod, too. It could even tell if some songs were already in the library, so they didn’t get doubled or tripled. And it also moved my playlists.
As I was moving the music, I ended up playing some long lost songs I had almost forgotten about. And it occurred to me that I could listen to my whole library for about 40 days and not hear the same song twice.
The only major bummer in the death of my computer was losing some music I had recorded for my mom. The touching voice mail she left for me included a request for me to record some hymns for her. I was almost finished with that project and had neglected to back it up on another machine when my hard drive croaked. Yesterday, I spent the day re-recording everything. In some instances, I think I did better, though. Since I had already learned the songs and figured out style and harmony, it took about seven hours instead of several days.
I happened to mention the death of my computer on Facebook and a few people actually took me to task over it, wondering why it died at only four years old. Truth be told, I am a power user and my computers get pounded on daily. The Mac lasted longer than the two PCs before it combined. Anyway, now that I have a new machine, I can keep communicating with the masses. I can’t remember how I got by without having a computer.
This song cracks me up. It was ahead of its time.
But really, when it comes to computer songs, I am partial to Prince’s “Computer Blue”…
