Day One Hundred eighty-six: Evening of February 6th 2010

I broke the first rule of upgrading your computer and paid for it, literally.

I can’t remember anytime when I do optimizations, upgrades, or hard drive repairs that the warning to back up your files doesn't appear on the screen. Depending upon the nature of the problem that I am acting upon, determines if I do back up my hard drive. But today it was my iPhone and its most recent upgrade to version 3.1.3. There is no hard drive, but there is a 32GB memory chip that is the storage device.

During the week I downloaded some of the songs from the most recent Grammy Awards, and I decided to back them up today. When I got past the iPhoto backup, and the iTunes window popped up I noticed that there was an update to the operating system, and without thinking I clicked on update. The only thought that flashed through my head was, “maybe this will fix the issue with the battery indicator not showing an overnight charge.” Boy, I should have been thinking about how that problem might indicate some serious trouble waiting down the line. When I clicked on ‘Update’ it was the end of that line - Ratz!

First the update cause iTunes to quit, then , when I tried again, the message appeared stating that I had to restore my iPhone to the original factory state. Shock, best describes my feeling. Then, I think, I’ve got to check what this means, and what happens to my iTunes library of songs and apps. Thinking about the potential loss of my collection of apps and music causes a bit of panic to sneak into my thoughts.

The Support section of the Apple website, wasn’t entirely clear about this problem, but I read through three or four of the different approaches to handle similar issues. The happiest pronouncement was the fact that I can restore and then rebuild from my backup. Hooray, I click on Restore, and after a while, I am informed that that the restore has failed. Further checking into the Support section, offered a few suggestions, but my thoughts shifted to how am I going to deal with worst case scenario - no phone. So, I restart the computer and restore again - No luck. I decide to combine two suggestions, different charging cord and remove any other USB devices hooked up to the computer. I disconnect everything, except the power supply and plug in an extra iPhone charge cable. I power up, hit restore and wait. It worked - Phew! After the restore, iTune sets up to reload all my backed up files and bring my iPhone back to its pre-update state. I am happy, except I hadn’t backed up my most recent purchases, almost twenty-one dollars worth of music, lost (a fitting fine?). I guess I’ll backup my iPhone the next time the Update button appears.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.