In my last blog I was very excited about the possibility of getting a new iphone 4 virtually free. And really, who wouldn't be. I did a bunch of research and found out who would give me the most for my old phone (Radio Shack, if you can imagine). So, first I had to put my name on the list at Radio Shack because I guess when they get a new shipment in, they sell them right away. So, a couple weeks later, when I finally got the call, I rushed downtown on a Saturday to get my new phone.
It all started out well. They were happy to help me, they wanted to give me $197 for my old phone, they assured me if my old phone had been synced (sunk?) with my computer I could just plug in and get all that info on my new phone, we deleted all the data off the phone and started the process. At the very end, as I'm signing the bill, it turns out the new iphone is $400 not $200. The nice sales associate called ATT for me and it turns out that an early renewal is $200 off not $200. At this point everything is done, my old phone is empty and I threw caution to the winds and said okay.
$250 + 1 hour
So, glowing with the purchase of my new phone, I head home. Immediately, I run to my computer plug in the phone AND................ boom, hit the wall. So, it turns out that iphone 4 is not compatible with the 'old' mac operating system. So in order to sync my phone or to ever plug my phone into my computer and save the data, I need to upgrade my entire operating system. Phone call to Apple to buy Leopard.
$143
A week and two days later the disc containing the new operating system arrives in the mail. I'm ready to slip it in and go. And then I listen to the niggling something in back of my brain that says 'new operating system = new computer' and I do some googling. Yes, I will lose ALL data on my computer. So I spend 5 hours that night researching how to back up data. After some hits and some misses I finally decide on a backup system called superduper (how could you pass that up) and try to back my computer up to various places, none of which are large enough. In a fit of frustration I ALMOST just installed the damn operating system, but I talked myself down and saved the life of my data.
$29 + 5 hours
The next day I enlisted the aid of a cautious (ie regularly backing up data kind of a guy) mac owning friend, and we headed off at lunch to buy an external hard drive. Well, of course, the MAC one was out of stock, but now I knew what I needed. So that evening I went to two more stores couldn't find a MAC only drive but finally found a sales associate who would actually help me and got a hard drive that was not MAC compatible, but left with semi decent instructions on what to do. That night was another 5-6 hours of figuring out how to reconfigure hard drives, downloading data, uploading a new operating system........
$90 + 5 - 6 -7 hours?
The previous night I'd fallen asleep while all the above was happening, so the next day I flew home from work, excited by my new operating system and the possibility of actually syncing my now 1.5 week old still naked phone (no contacts, no calendars, no apps etc). That night I learned all about the MAC, transferring data, uploading old stuff, some of it involved google searching to figure out how to do things that weren't working. I almost lost every contact but was able to pull through in the last minute. I did lose my calendar and all the pictures on my phone.
4 hours + some lost hair and teeth enamel from too much pulling and gnashing.
Happy ending? $500 and countless hours and swear words later, my free phone wasn't so free! Would I do it again? I'm certainly older and wise and, I know MUCH more about my computer and data saving that I did two weeks ago.
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