[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Help my MacBook Air

Thu May 4 07:02:14 PDT 2023

 As soon as Time Machine stopped making the backups, two things should have been done:
1) Replace the drive used for Time Machine and set it up fresh on a new external drive. Then playing around with the original backup drive could have been done safely.
2) Immediately make a clone or bit-for-bit image of the Mac's system drive, using software for which you also have created a bootable USB Flash Drive with a complete recovery environment on it. For Mac, there are not the variety of options for this kind of imaging software which Windows users have, but there are free and paid options out there. And make a copy (or two) to an additional external drive (or two) so as to have less chance of losing everything if the original backup drive might become corrupted or totally fail. 
I know, extra external drives cost money, but you have just seen why it's money well spent. And learning how to create and restore full system images is also a good investment of time and effort. I don't use Macs or Macbooks, but there are some articles available which show what your Mac backup options are beyond Time Machine. For example:
Best Backup Software for Mac: Free and Paid Solutionshttps://www.macgasm.net/news/reviews/best-backup-software-mac/ 

The very slow performance of the Safe Mode backup should have been a red flag that the drive or the system being backed up was in poor condition. That was when having a clean copy of the original system backup (or a verified system image and a working recovery environment) would have been useful. 

A good backup solution for any computer or device MUST result in more than one copy on independent external media. It MUST have a bootable rescue environment from which to recover if the main system drive does not boot. And it MUST have a Verify function for the backup image, to make sure it can be restored. Solutions which fail any of these criteria are NOT complete backup solutions. With these criteria in mind, it would appear that Time Machine by itself is not a complete backup and recovery solution.

Given that no complete system backup was done and copied to a second external drive prior to the failure of your Time Machine backup system, you now have no copies of your last working backup. This is a weakness in Time Machine -- it does do decent file and folder backups, but it does not create extra copies stored on additional drives, in case of a drive or other system failure in the original backup drive or backup system. There is also no independent bootable recovery environment for Time Machine.  In other words, Time Machine is not a complete backup and recovery environment. 
Your options now are very limited. Especially after the Apple support people convinced you to wipe out your Macbook system drive without having any idea whether your Time Machine backups could be restored. That was VERY bad support! 
I am sorry you had to learn about this the hard way. I do hope your data can be successfully recovered. Taking the Macbook and the drive to Apple for attempted recovery is about your only option now. Data recovery is not likely to work on a Time Machine drive. Western Digital may be able to verify a drive failure, or they may be able to test and confirm that the drive did not fail. But they would not be able to recover your data and restore your Macbook to a working condition. 
Here's hoping you can recover your system and your data. 
-- Bob Primak 
    On Thursday, May 4, 2023 at 08:43:45 AM EDT, Alice Meade <alice.meade at icloud.com> wrote:  

 Hi everyone,

I have a big problem. I have a MacBook Air and an external Western Digital drive for Time Machine Back ups. It was working fine but then it stopped backing up. I called Apple and spoke to a senior adviser. He was able to get me to login to Safe Mode and I was able to create a back up of my machine. The next day it tried to back up but was very, very slow. I called the same technician back and he said “OK, let’s erase your hard drive and then we can do a restore from the Western Digital drive. I unfortunately said “OK”. We did this but when I tried to restore from the external drive, my computer said it didn’t recognize it!!! Yikes!!! I have been on the phone with multiple Apple people. I have a call with with the Western Digital people later today but I also contacted a Data Recovery service (based on my problem with my old hard drive). 
They asked me to bring the MacBook Air and the Western Digital drive into them. I was going to do that later today unless you think I should do something else.
Thanks!!!!Alice

On May 2, 2023, at 1:41 PM, Jonathan Goode <jonathan.goode at gmail.com> wrote:
 (NOTE: Repeated Reminder. No changes to contents.)

This meeting will be available in theLexington Community Center. You mayattend in person or via Zoom.

Our Zoom Meeting ID is 972 61460830. Detailed instructions for joining us on Zoom are at the end of thismessage.

| May 3, 2023  |  
Charlie Holbrow will talk about Archimedes and his principle. Three parts:
 1. King Hiero, cheating goldsmith, Archimedes running naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting Eureka
 2. When a barge full of scrap iron sinks in a canal lock, does the water in the lock rise or fall?
 3. When the dirigible Hindenberg burned disastrously in Lakehurst, NJ in 1937, how much hydrogen burned and how much energy was released?
  |

Below are our plans for Upcoming Meetings. Formore schedule information, please refer to https://wiki.toku.us/doku.php?id=lctg_speaker_schedule 
| May 10, 2023  |  
Joseph Henry, America's Most Prominent Physicist after Benjamin Franklin. (Presented in person by Professor Michael Littman of Princeton University)
 Joseph Henry (1797-1878) was Professor of Natural Philosophy at Princeton. His interests focused on electromagnetism. A contemporary of Michael Faraday, he discovered self-induction in current-carrying coils. The unit of induction — the Henry — is named in his honor. He pioneered the creation of high magnetic fields, electric motors, and the telegraph. He became Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution when it was formed in 1846.
  |
|    |  

  |
| May 17, 2023  |  
The New Nova on Notre Dame that aired 12/14/2022; video and recent events
  |

SPECIALNOTE  - Links to many of our previous sessions are available online at http://lctg.toku.us/, thanks tothe diligence of Steve Isenberg. This includes our sessions

   - Prion Diseases https://youtu.be/M-eFxsEKQuI
   - Windows 11; is it time? https://youtu.be/NhlDobQ9eGY
   - Generating Oxygen on Mars https://youtu.be/56-xpi3hEvc
   - Facial Recognition https://youtu.be/6eupcUxqggU
   - Voyager Spacecraft Update, Lessons Learned https://youtu.be/ox2wl0E_PH8
   - Cognition, Affect, and Learning: The Role of Emotions in Learning https://youtu.be/sf2JL3zwrmg
   - Early Digital Computers  https://youtu.be/a1KN0KiOnMs
   - For the Love of Physics https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/10/despite-mits-decision-delete-walter-lewins-lecture-videos-live
   - Ukraine Update https://youtu.be/zbSYGw3a3aQ
   - Einstein Rings https://youtu.be/DOj5pOADjM0
   - Crypto Crashes and Crypto Culture https://youtu.be/OMuhB_AFIwA
   - Scientific Misconduct https://youtu.be/dN3lykmu4CE
   - Quantum Entanglement https://youtu.be/dOmZqbU1sC0     
 If this email wasn'taddressed to you and you would like to join the group, or if you have a friendor colleague who might also be interested in joining, it's easy.  Ask themto go to the group's wiki page at http://LCTG.toku.us and follow the simpleinstructions under "Join the Email List".  By being a member ofthe group you'll get reminders of upcoming meetings and infrequent relatedmessages. No advertising.  The list is tightly managed.Membership is free and given that all meetingsare available on Zoom you only need to be connected to the Internet to join. It'sok to join from anywhere you can get a decent Internet connection.   
   - We, the Lexington Computer and Technology Group, will meet Wednesday at the usual 10AM Eastern Time online, using the Zoom Video Conferencing Application, facilitated by Steve Isenberg. (If noted above, we may also be at the Lexington Community Center.)
There is an instructionpage at https://toku.us/zoomishbut note that the URL and phone number shown are examples.

To join our online meeting,sometime after 9:45 AM on Wednesday, choose one of the following options:   
   - If you have the Zoom application installed, start it and join meeting with ID 972 6146 0830
   - From your browser, go to: https://zoom.us/j/97261460830
   - From your smartphone, tap this: +16468769923,,97261460830
   - From a “dumb” telephone, call 1 646 876 9923 and enter meeting ID: 972 6146 0830 

   - Once the connection is established, you may need to locate and use the on-screen controls that turn on the sound and the video. You should be able to see and hear others and they should be able to see and hear you, if you have a camera and microphone (each of which you can unmute selectively).
===============================================
::The Lexington Computer and Technology Group Mailing List::
Reply goes to sender only; Reply All to send to list.
Send to the list: LCTG at lists.toku.us      Message archives: http://lists.toku.us/pipermail/lctg-toku.us/
To subscribe: email lctg-subscribe at toku.us  To unsubscribe: email lctg-unsubscribe at toku.us
Future and Past meeting information: http://LCTG.toku.us
List information: http://lists.toku.us/listinfo.cgi/lctg-toku.us
This message was sent to alice.meade at icloud.com.
Set your list options: http://lists.toku.us/options.cgi/lctg-toku.us/alice.meade@icloud.com

===============================================
::The Lexington Computer and Technology Group Mailing List::
Reply goes to sender only; Reply All to send to list.
Send to the list: LCTG at lists.toku.us      Message archives: http://lists.toku.us/pipermail/lctg-toku.us/
To subscribe: email lctg-subscribe at toku.us  To unsubscribe: email lctg-unsubscribe at toku.us
Future and Past meeting information: http://LCTG.toku.us
List information: http://lists.toku.us/listinfo.cgi/lctg-toku.us
This message was sent to bobprimak at yahoo.com.
Set your list options: http://lists.toku.us/options.cgi/lctg-toku.us/bobprimak@yahoo.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.toku.us/pipermail/lctg-toku.us/attachments/20230504/25fb40df/attachment.htm>