Good grief! The entire Applications folder got wiped!
Or further reasons why I hate computers…
Sub-Evil Boy got a new computer game while I was away at the Digi-Key competition (more on that in a later post). Unfortunately something weird happened in the install process (we’ll probably never know the details) and it wiped the entire Applications folder on that computer. Everything in it was gone except for about a half dozen application fragments (which I’m guessing survived because he didn’t have permission to remove them). I suspect it was a combination of a poorly designed install mechanism and an honest mistake, but it still sucks.
It’s amazing what a pain it is if Mac OS X loses its entire Applications folder. There are the obvious things like iTunes and a bunch of Sub-Evil’s games, but there are some more tricky bits like, oh, no web browser (so you can’t [easily] download replacements for, say, the lost web browsers) and no System Preferences or anything in the Utilities folder. Argh!
Restoring the apps from the DVD doesn’t do it because that doesn’t give you things like Safari and iTunes and the Utilities. So it looks like I’ll need to re-install the system software, which bites, in part because backing the Users beforehand is a pain with so much missing. We’ve had really good luck with BackupPC in our CSci lab so I’m really thinking I need to install it here at the house to manage the backups of our boxes.
As much as this sort of thing drives me nuts (and sucks up way too much of my time), I figure I at least have some clue how to handle it when it happens. One has to wonder, then, what all the other poor souls do who are just barely getting by. If you’re still nervous about the power switch, I suspect that erasing your Applications folder is pretty much the apocalypse.
Oh, and the picture? Sub-Evil was understandably pretty stressed and worried that I’d get a wee bit upset at him. So I just want him to know that I don’t blame him and we’re all still cool. But if he ever does it again I’m going to make sure this photo (from when he was about 6.5) appears in his high school senior yearbook :-).
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