Macs crash too

You know all those sales advertised on TV: PC's for only $299 or even less? Now is the time to take advantage and get a backup computer. A laptop that is just for emergencies is a MUST for any small business owner. I got lucky yesterday when my Mac crashed and I had access to an emergency laptop. Below is my rant.

I've owned a Mac for as long as I've been in business. Well, maybe not the whole time: it was actually a bad experience with a PC that convinced me to switch to Mac. Aside from some minor moodiness, my Mac has been pretty predictable for the last five years. But lately it's been running slow and crashing unexpectedly - I guess all crashes are unexpected.

I know Yahoo! is part of the problem, oh by the way, don't host your site through Yahoo!; but that's another post for another day.

I'm up to date with all my updates, I use Tiger 10.5.whatever, I even make sure and store all my big picture files on a flash drive. But, despite all of my precautions, my precious Mac took a dump.

So what happens when a Mac takes a dump? Well, mine started running slow, sending up warning messages about an invalid script, dropping my browser, and refusing to log on to the internet.

I first ran a hi-tech virus scan on it that turned up nothing. I had a feeling since Macs don't really get viruses. I then tried cleaning up my hard drive to free up some space - nope. So rather than play the guessing game I just wiped the whole thing clean. I started from scratch. It's always nice to clean house, at least in theory. Once you actually do wipe the slate clean it can get pretty frustrating. So yesterday I spent the whole day reinstalling software, trying to remember passwords, AND, since mine is a Mac mini with an Intel chip I also had to spend half the day chasing down drivers for PC programs.

Luckily my mom let me use her PC laptop to keep up with emails. But I hate laptops, they feel so cramped.

This isn't a rant against Mac or for PC, it's a rant that no computer is safe from crashing. They all do it. If you LIVE on your computer you should have a backup.