Bob McCarty Writes

After waking up and fixing coffee and cereal this morning, I fired up my MacBook to start my blogging day. Within minutes, I discovered that ham and eggs would have been a better breakfast choice. Why? Because my MacBook’s hard drive is now in an unforgiving configuration computer experts refer to as “toast.”

I found this out soon after going online. After opening separate tabs for my mail, this blog’s admin panel and Drudge Report, I clicked to open up a hot story about the conflict between Russia and Georgia. Unfortunately, I never saw the article. Instead, I encountered what I would describe as spinning cursor syndrome. I opted, after several minutes, to escape the madness by hard-closing my laptop and then restarting it. Upon restart, however, the dreaded “blinking question mark” appeared on my screen.

Not familiar with the implications of the blinking question mark, I grabbed my son’s laptop and visited several Mac troubleshooting sites. The brains behind those sites, almost to a number, reached an identical conclusion: the blinking question mark indicates my hard drive is no longer functioning as intended by Steve Jobs and his underlings at Apple.

I waited until 8 a.m. Central — when Apple’s support staff in California began their day — to place a call to the manufacturer of my MacBook. After explaining my dilemma to a friendly repair technician, attempting to fix my problems via her instructions and, in between attempts, listening to several hip hold music tunes, we reached the same conclusion reached by the aforementioned online experts: my MacBook is in bad shape and needs to travel. To Apple. For repairs.

After balking at being told that I should receive a shipping container within 3-5 days, the Apple tech told me to expect it in 1-2 days. Couple that with two weeks of repair time and return shipping, and I should see my laptop again within a month. I hope.

After two consecutive hard drive failures (see this post for an account of my experience one year ago with an external hard drive from Western Digital), I find myself longing for a return to the days when I used an IBM Selectric II typewriter to prepare my prose for publication. Those were the days, my friend. Those were the days indeed.

Note: Stay tuned for updates on how well the repair process works.

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UPDATE:  Incredibly, I received the box in which I shipped my MacBook one day after publishing this post.  Next, I took my computer, all packaged and ready to go, to the DHL drop-off location in time for a 4 p.m. Central pickup deadline.  Less than 24 hours after I had dropped it off, I received it by return overnite delivery — and with a new hard drive.

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