réparations en cours

It's not so much a repair as a replacement that's happening with my Mac laptop. The computer-repair shop that had been closed all weekend proved to be open today (Monday), so I walked my dead Mac over there in the early afternoon. The store had a sign on its front door that said, "No mask, no entry," but the repair dude who greeted me wasn't wearing a mask.

I told the guy about how my Mac had very suddenly crapped out on me on Friday, booting up only to freeze and display a folder icon with a huge question mark on it. The guy said it sounded as if I'd have to flush the entire system, and if I wanted to keep any data, I'd need to back it all up first before doing the purge. I said that that was the problem: I couldn't even access my data. We went around in frustrating circles like that for a minute, and then I finally asked if he could just do whatever was necessary even if that meant losing all my data. The guy gave a simple yes.

After that, it was just a matter of discussing my power cord (which I had brought) and how to establish data-transfer ability. I hadn't brought along a CAT-5 cable, but the dude said WiFi would work fine. Things got awkward when he asked me for my system password; I use a sequence of letters that any Korean who can phonetically read English will immediately recognize as vulgar. The repair guy also asked for my phone number, and before I left, he said the work could be done tonight, or it could take until this coming Wednesday at the latest. I told him my cell phone was also dying, so he should text me and not call by voice.

Later in the day, the guy texted to say the SSD (drive) was completely shot, so it would need to be replaced, and the cost for parts and labor would be W150,000. I texted back that that would be fine, and that's where things stand: the repairman probably has to order the needed part, after which it ought to be a matter of putting the new part in place. I'm secretly hoping he replaces the 64GB-capacity drive with something of a much higher capacity, but that may be asking for too much.

Once I get my laptop back with its new brain, there's going to be a lot of square-one-ing to do. I'll have to reinstall several programs, and in some cases, I may have to out-and-out repurchase others. Most frustratingly, I'm going to have to restart my book project from square one, which means two or three months of intensive labor. But at least I've learned my lesson: I'll be storing that project on my external drive, and I might finally get in the habit of backing up my data on other media.

It's a setback, to be sure, but the death of my Mac's brain isn't a tragedy. It's more like a huge annoyance, and as annoyances go, it beats getting eaten alive by a tiger.

ADDENDUM: I hunted around online to see whether W150,000 was a reasonable price for this sort of repair. Turns out that it is. One site said to expect an $80/hour charge for labor, plus at least $75 for the new SSD. By that standard, this particular job is reasonably priced. Of course, a smarter person would have done this research before going to see the repairman, but in my case, it has all worked out in the end. Assuming the dude doesn't do shitty work.