Mac Ownership

I took a trip to the Apple store today to visit one of the techs at the Genius Bar (that's their FREE in-house tech support).  I have been trying to update the Operating System of our household "flagship computer" - a 5 1/2 year old iMac G4.  This computer has all of our photos and videos on it and I create our family webpage and DVDs on this computer.  I have tried the OS update multiple times and the computer has locked up or had an error.

Since the computer is so old, I am out of my extended warrantee period.  However, I can still get free tech support at the Apple Store with the Genius Bar.  Hooray!

I backed up the computer last night and I schlepped the iMac into the store this afternoon.  The first thing the tech did was run a disk utility which showed there were unrepairable errors on the hard drive.  YIKES!  In order to proceed we were going to have to erase the hard drive - which meant, if that didn't fix the problem than I wouldn't be able to get any OS on the computer and I was looking at a $300-$400 hard drive replacement (or more likely a new iMac...I was secretly hoping this was the case, although I know we can't afford it right now).  Luckily, the reformatting of the hard drive worked and I was out of the store in about an hour with a new OS on my iMac!  The best of all...NO CHARGE for the tech support.

I know I paid for that support up front - Mac computers are much more expensive than PCs.  However, I also paid for a computer that had features that most PCs did not have at that time (Firewire ports, a card slot and antenna for a wireless card, etc.) which makes the computer still relevant today.  How many 5 1/2 year old PCs can run the latest Windows OS (that's Vista) without a major overhaul?

So tonight I was busy restoring my documents, data and applications on the iMac.  While I was restoring from the backup, I took some time to do yoga again.  I'm now nice and relaxed and ready to hit the sack!