by Bret Capranica | Feb 3, 2014 | Featured Articles, Technology
This past weekend was one of “those” weekends. It used to happen to me so much more frequently. However, I have not experienced it in almost five years: the dreaded laptop crash. I saw it coming over the past few weeks. The reliable and beloved MacBook Pro (2009) was not only slowing down, it was beginning to crawl like an infant. Last weekend, I removed just under 100 gigs of material (apps, docs, pics, music, etc.). Nothing. In fact, the dreaded Mac beach-ball-of-death was showing up on a more frequent basis throughout the week – to the point that it was taking almost as long as a Windows machine to boot, and then with every app I opened, I would have to wait for some 2 to 5 minutes before I could work. Nope. That won’t work. So, instead of trying to relax on my one day off, I spent the afternoon and evening in a last ditch effort to bring back my Mac bliss. I researched articles (on my iPad) on how to speed things up. I purged, I cleared, I dumped, etc., etc. Nothing. No change. At all. I finally came to the conclusion that I would have to do what every Microsoft phone-assistant suggests as a first step: reinstall the OS. Sweat, anger, fear – it all rushed upon me. Honestly, I haven’t felt this in years. I used to go through a Windows laptop every 18 months for a number of years before my Mac conversion. I forgot what it felt like – but the memory was quickly engaged and old feelings flooded back. However,...
