More mac issues...

[TrimTheKing]

Well all I can say is thank all that is sacred that I decided last week to move all the data off my Mac onto my NAS and to finally upgrade from Lion (2010 OS...!!!) to Sierra.

I have been going back and forwards installing Sierra, the restoring Lion because I forgot to copy off my iPhoto library of over 40,000 photo's, then reinstalling Sierra etc.

Well the computer has been glitching for about 6 months, slowly getting worse with screen artefacts appearing and it needing a reload every day whereas it used to constantly stay on for weeks/months at a time.

The artefacting appeared to have settled down on first install of Sierra but came back with a vengeance after a day or so. I did another clean reinstall, or at least tried to, and fully cleaned and formatted the HD first, but on trying to reinstall Sierra the machine is now telling me the HD has S.M.A.R.T errors and cannot be repaired. I need to replace the HD!!

So glad I finally found that mojo otherwise I could have lost a LOT of stuff!!!

Cheers
Mark

 

[Malc2098]

Just installed High Sierra yesterday.

Took me over four hours! It kept hanging. Got some online advice and it eventually worked. Sailing along nicely now.

 

[AndyP]

Upgrading OS is always a stressful task in my experience.

I am still running El Capitan on my late 2009 mac and my FIL's late 2015. Is it worth upgrading to High Sierra? Do you think my late 2009 mac can cope? I am sure the FIL's should be ok but I would like to keep them on the same OS if possible.

If you have a moment can you cut through the tech speak and give me the low down on NAS drives. I do have an external 500gb LaCie drive on FireWire for weekly backups.

 

[Malc2098]

Upgrading OS is always a stressful task in my experience.

I agree

I am still running El Capitan on my late 2009 mac and my FIL's late 2015. Is it worth upgrading to High Sierra? Do you think my late 2009 mac can cope? I am sure the FIL's should be ok but I would like to keep them on the same OS if possible.

My 2014 Mini is really flying now.

If you have a moment can you cut through the tech speak and give me the low down on NAS drives. I do have an external 500gb LaCie drive on FireWire for weekly backups.

I haven't got a clue what you're talking about!

 

[Robert]

I don't do Mac but I've had NAS drives and now run a home server instead.

Network Attached Storage is a simple operating system on a small electronics board in a box with one or more hard drives. The operating system (usually some form of linux) presents the shared folders on the drive to users on the network. You configure it using a web browser - share permissions, users etc.

It means for example anyone in the house can connect and say view photos or listen to music without someone's computer that normally has that stuff being turned on. It's usually always on (sleeping) and available whenever needed. You can back up computers to it as well. How it does with Mac I'll let you work out.

My home server is a HP microserver. It does what a NAS unit does and more. Apart from sharing all our media- every picture we have ever taken or kept from parents is scanned in and viewable, all our music collection, every old home video... it also automatically backs up all our PC's and laptops... and backs itself up to a plug in 6TB drive that occasionally gets swapped out and taken for storage elsewhere. Power consumption is only 20 watts idle.

Oh and just to add why I stopped using a NAS unit... They tend to use a linux type format for the drives. No problem normally but hard to read if the OS board fails. I had a RAID unit with 2 drives in fail. Due to the proprietary formatting I could not read the drives even though they were unharmed. Nothing lost as I have backups of everything but it put me off NAS units.

 

[RogerS]

Upgrading OS is always a stressful task in my experience.

:text-+1:

I am still running El Capitan on my late 2009 mac and my FIL's late 2015. Is it worth upgrading to High Sierra? Do you think my late 2009 mac can cope?

Mine is also 2009 but can't upgrade. If yours is late-2009 then you may be OK. There is a link somewhere on the Apple website that will tell you.

If you have a moment can you cut through the tech speak and give me the low down on NAS drives. I do have an external 500gb LaCie drive on FireWire for weekly backups.

Weekly ? Surely you mean 'daily' ?

NAS drives ?

1) A fancy set of drives that connects to your Mac via Ethernet (usually).

2) A fancy set of drives that might not work properly with OSX.

3) A even more fancy set of drives that will give you a certain amount of redundancy in the event of hard drive failure - see RAID

4) An even, even more fancy set of drives that will let you do hot-swapping of any failed drives.

For 1 > 4, read 'ever more expensive' !

I run a brilliant program called Scannerz that will scan your entire drive and benchmark its performance...seek times etc..against the norm and also against a log of your own drive the last time you ran the test. Highlights incipient possible failures. Bill provides excellent after-sales support and is very helpful.

 

[AndyP]

Thanks Robert, NAS is one for the geeks then

 

[AndyP]

Thanks Roger,
Late 2009 is in fact oldest machine that will take HS. As I have not upgraded my now unsupported version of MSOffice, which wont work on HS, I will things as they are.

As the iMac is now 8 years old it must be time for a new one

I do only back up once a week We do not do anything of any great importance on a daily basis to make a daily backup worth while.

 

[Rod]

My MacBook Pro is mid 2009 and now no longer upgradeable [emoji53]

I kept up with the upgrades in the past and never had any issues or problems.

Having said that I still cannot get WiFi to work, it’s now showing the Wi-fi search symbol but doesn’t pick up my hub. I tried it at my daughter’s house with the same result.
Next stage, according to the help pages, is to disconnect and reconnect the battery.

I back up my machines every now and then, the only important things are my photos and videos which I back up to various external hard drives and DVDs. My daughters get copies of the DVDs.

Rod

 

[AndyP]

Rod,
Ring the Apple support helpdesk. I was amazed that they sorted me out even out of warranty and with no applecare. If Rob and I have been lucky then what have you got to lose?

 

[Rod]

I contacted the help line - it seems my machine is obsolete and it’s a hardware failure!
Gave me an address of a repair co. in Basingstoke as Apple don’t maintain “obsolete” devices or keep spares.
The repair company know of a S/H network card.
Total repair quote £120.
Ah well cheaper than a new machine.

Rod

 

[Robert]

Can Macs not work with a usb wifi dongle? they are very small and an easy fix for wifi..

 

[Rod]

I found this but no idea what a mu-mini is

Edimax
5.0 out of 5 stars 1 Reviews
Edimax MU-MIMO USB Adapter

The AC1200 was recommended in an article on the Mac


Rod

 

[AndyP]

On the basis of this article
https://www.macworld.com/article/318736 ... oblem.html
and with the caveat that you can confirm it will work with whatever version of OS you are using I would give it a try.

 

[Rod]

£27 later and lighter, this arrived today:

Instructions were a bit flakey as it covered Windows as well.
Kept coming up with a message “Please key in PIN Code to your AP’s configuration page” which I couldn’t understand.
After a few goes I noticed a new symbol in the Header, clicked on it which revealed my Router Hub, inserted pass code and it works! [emoji4]

One less USB port (there’s only 2) but it’s cheaper than the repair at £120.
Thanks for the advice.

Rod

 

[AndyP]

Glad you got sorted Rod, and one for me to bookmark for the future.