By Graham K. Rogers

At the end of June, the 2.4 GHz iMac I have been using for about 4 years had a hard disk failure. I was lucky not to lose any data. I was able to rescue the important information using Disk Warrior. That went onto an external hard disk in my office while the Mac went to a U-Store (a small version of the iStudio retail outlets in Thailand) for a new hard disk.

There was a small delay initially as I had bought the wrong hard disk size: a miscommunication at the office. When the correct size 500 GB hard disk arrived I took it over to the store and waited. And waited. . . .

The first three parts of this mini-disaster are available online:

• Hard Disk Failure on the Office iMac
• Hard Disk Failure on the Office iMac: Part 2 - Data Recovery
• Hard Disk Failure on the Office iMac: Part 3 - Delayed by a Mixup or Two

With the mid exam period in full swing I had some time so walked over to to the U-Store. The iMac was ready and had been for over a week. Why not phone me? They could not get through, I was told. Odd that: everyone else could.

Back at the office, the power cord was nowhere to be seen so I retrieved that from the store as well. When the iMac was started, I found it had been returned to me with OS X, 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) installed. It had gone in with 10.7.4 (Lion).

I started the Mac App Store application to download a copy of Mountain Lion (10.8) and saw that all information was in Thai. I changed this in System Preferences, but in the meantime had to guess at the buttons to press. I must have got it right as after entering account name and password information, the Mountain Lion download started. It was late Tuesday, so I went home, leaving it to complete the job.

I went for a drink and when I came back a short while later (much less than 30 minutes), it was done with the latest galaxy -- a small "g" please note -- waiting for me. I had two choices: use the Time Machine backup from my MacBook Pro to create a ready-to-run clone of my usual environment; or to build the disk back up from scratch, using the data I had taken off when the disk had self-destructed. Although this was harder, I decided on this slower approach.

I began by setting up a new Admin account, using the same name as I had before. I turned off Automatic login and logged out of the "Apple" admin account. In the new Admin account, I deleted "Apple" and added a new User account for my day to day use.

Using Fast User Switching, I made sure the acccount was at least usable and set up the Apple ID there. A few minutes later, after automatic synchronisation, I had access to data in Notes, Address Book, Calandar, email (iCloud) and bookmarks in Safari. I was ready to roll, at least basically.

As I use a Magic Trackpad with the iMac, I also quickly added the Zoom-scroll in Accessibility preferences and a 3-finger drag to match my way of working on the MacBook Pro. I also made a test purchase from the Mac App Store which recognised that the application I chose had already been purchased using the account details I used and indicated that it was free.

I connected the disk I had copied essential data to -- from the Disk Warrior-created clone -- and copied across what was needed. This consisted a backup of my pictures and a copy of the eXtensions website. Other accounts would have different data and I would recreate these as needed.

My main problem was then (and now) software:

• Apple-installed software came with Mountain Lion so I am up and running with these applications immediately (e.g. Safari, Address Book, iCal);
• Applications I had downloaded from the Mac App Store can be seen in the Purchases section. I can go through that list bit by bit and restore what I want (some I will not bother with);
• Third-party software can be checked off against what I have on my MacBook Pro. I can then decide which of those applications I want to download.
• The main problem -- perhaps paradoxically -- will come from Apple software. . . .

A number of applications that I have been using for years like Aperture and iWork (Pages, Numbers and especially Keynote) were purchased before the Mac App Store existed, and although installed on the Mac legally, never registered as such in this new online source. When I look at the list entry for Mountain Lion (or Lion) it shows "download".

To get me up and running I downloaded a number of apps from the Mac App Store:

Writeroom, Colorstrokes, Camerabag2, Bronson Watermarker, Sofortbild, Analog, Image Tricks Lite, Photo Effects Lite, iSplash Pro, linesmART. ToyViewer, Nova Bench and Twitter.

I also downloaded Dropbox so that I could sync data, particularly with WriteRoom, which I have on all my Macs, plus the iPhone and iPad. The words above were all written using this and were finished on my MacBook Pro at home.

I did find a disk with iLife '11 in my office. I had almost fogotten I had this. I had bought a family pack from the online Apple Store when it was first released. I installed the applications (GarageBand, iMovie, iPhoto). When that was done, I saw that the iPhoto icon was broken in the Dock, so checked for updates.

Unsurprisingly, all the components of iLife needed updating and I began the download (some 1.53 GB). When complete the broken iPhoto (v. 9.1) icon was repaired and the application opened with my photographs. However, I had to update again (v. 9.3.2) for the most up-to-date version which would allow Photo Sharing and access to the images in the Aperture Library once the library was upgraded, a process that took only a minute or so.

It took me a few hours overall (spread over a couple of days) but I now have my iMac back into a state that allows me to work fairly normally. There is still a fair amount of software that needs to be tracked down and installed as well as some fine-tuning of OS X and the System Preferences to bring me back up to full speed, but the main tasks have been done and I have a working computer.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.