There are two things in modern computer technology that I am truly, honestly thankful for: Live CDs and Time Machine. While attempting a system update yesterday, right after transferring all my documents and media off of my external hard drive, my infant son smacked the keyboard, somehow freezing the computer in the update process. This wouldn't have been that big of a deal if I hadn't wiped the external drive in anticipation of creating a Time Machine backup after the update. The system wouldn't boot, and I had killed my backup not 10 minutes earlier. 5 years worth of documents, photos, music, and video, gone. Or so I thought.
After about 20 minutes of freaking out, I realized that I might be able to gain access to my files through my Ubuntu CD. I popped the CD in and booted into the Live CD. I elated realized that I could see my hard drive, and the folders contained within. But upon going into my home directory, I was blocked access (as I was hoping to avoid). Another few minutes of sweating bullets, and then I remembered how to get sudo file access through the terminal. After entering the requisite commands, I was given the ability to see the files. Upon trying to copy the individual folders (Documents, Music, Movies, Photos), I was told that I didn't have that access. This is where I really started to panic, as I was out of the options I knew. After a few minutes, I just tried to copy the entire home directory to the external drive, and was rewarded with an hour of glorious file transfer.
After that, I reinstalled Leopard and copied all of my media over. I did a Time Machine backup as soon as that was complete (a freakin' 4 hour process, for some reason), and then went ahead with my system updates, application installs, etc. Now, as I'm running a Hacintosh, I can't do the Apple Combo Updates from Software Update as most do. I have to use specially formulated Combo Updates just for us Mac-on-PC types. Well, the update for 10.5.3 (I'm installed at 10.5.2) has repeatedly bricked my install. Time Machine has saved my ass multiple times in the past few days, and allowed me the flexibility to trial and error a wifi issue without worrying about reinstalling. A full restore from my Time Machine takes about an hour, whereas installing the system, copying files, installing updates, and installing applications takes around 6-8 hours. I love Leopard and Time Machine. In my opinion, it's the best backup system out there.
So what's the moral of this story? Don't ever wipe your backup and install a system update while holding an infant in your lap. You WILL regret the results. Trust me.
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