Mac-savvy person wanted

[nativexpat]

Hi, I have a MacBookPro which I use for work and I have never gotten around to doing a back up (not even with Time Machine, I am useless ). I would also like to copy my hard drive to an external drive.

I know it should not be that hard, but I am burnt out from working on the computer for 8 hours straight every day and don't have the patience/energy to sit down and learn how to do it myself.

Anyone willing to come to my house and do this for me and teaching me the basics? I will pay!

Thanks!

Mercedes

 

[notebook.fix]

Hi Mercedes,

How about you try this first....backing up your Mac with time machine is very easy. Have you already got an external Back up Hard disk? If you do, then here's a youtube video explaining all the basics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xm1SySGANQ&feature=related

If this doesn't help you, then yes just PM me & we can organize a time for me to drop by. I love Macs & I use one daily too. I think there are many advantages to using a Mac, one of them being 'ease of use' . Most tasks can be followed intuitively.

Good luck!

Hi, I have a MacBookPro which I use for work and I have never gotten around to doing a back up (not even with Time Machine, I am useless ). I would also like to copy my hard drive to an external drive.

I know it should not be that hard, but I am burnt out from working on the computer for 8 hours straight every day and don't have the patience/energy to sit down and learn how to do it myself.

Anyone willing to come to my house and do this for me and teaching me the basics? I will pay!

Thanks!

Mercedes

 

[MacDaddy]

I am a fairly recent transplant here and a Mac specialist. I'd be happy to come over and setup a backup system for you.

Although as the last poster pointed out, it is super easy to set up Time Machine.
I recommend having a bootable backup of your hard drive as well. This can be done with SuperDuper! for free.

Check out my ad on Craigslist for all my Mac services: http://buenosaires.en.craigslist.org/cps/2160571957.html

Cheers,

Josh Johnson

edit: since the Craigslist ad is not a perma-link (it expires every month), I've been asked to add my contact info for follow-up:
email: [email protected]
mobile: (15) 3948-3398

 

[mini]

Can someone decode my mac DVD player?

 

[MacDaddy]

Can someone decode my mac DVD player?

Can you elaborate? I'm not sure what you mean by this.

 

[mini]

Can you elaborate? I'm not sure what you mean by this.

Hum.... I thought that was pretty clear. Let me try again.
My mac plays only DVD's from zone 1 (US, where I bought the mac). I have DVD's from zone 1, 2 & 4 which I'd like to also play on my mac. So, I need to dezone it. I guess that's a better term.

 

[MacDaddy]

Ah, you're talking about the dreaded Region Codes, brought to us by the dastardly MPAA.
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.10

You've probably noticed that Apple's DVD Player will ask you if you want to change the machine's region code when you insert a disc from a different region. However, you can only do this five times before the computer gets locked to the last region.

You can flash the ROM on the hardware, hack the firmware, etc. but the easiest long-term solution is to simply use VLC to play your DVD's rather than DVD Player. Change your preferences to make VLC the default player to open DVD's rather than Apple's player. VLC doesn't care about region codes. It will also play just about any video codec thrown at it, btw. And it's free.

 

[mini]

Ah, you're talking about the dreaded Region Codes, brought to us by the dastardly MPAA.
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.10

You've probably noticed that Apple's DVD Player will ask you if you want to change the machine's region code when you insert a disc from a different region. However, you can only do this five times before the computer gets locked to the last region.

You can flash the ROM on the hardware, hack the firmware, etc. but the easiest long-term solution is to simply use VLC to play your DVD's rather than DVD Player. Change your preferences to make VLC the default player to open DVD's rather than Apple's player. VLC doesn't care about region codes. It will also play just about any video codec thrown at it, btw. And it's free.

Interesting. I already use VLC. I'll see if I can figure out how to change the default thingy you mention....

 

[notebook.fix]

MacDaddy's VLC suggestion is good as a first try (hi MacDaddy!), it was correct to instruct you to use that first,...but as all things technology...it only owrks on some DVD players.

What I mean is this, your mac's DVD player manufacturers is one of various different manufacturers who regularly make DVD players for Macs, and so VLC can bypass certain brands & models of DVD players, but not all.

Sorry if I have misread your post but have you actually used up all your regions on your mac's DVD & reached your limit of allowable changes?..is this the case?.

I don't know if I have the solution for you but the first thing I would suggest is that you download the latest version of VLC for mac, the older version may not work on your current hardware and this may be the reason why you currently can't watch DVDs.

If this does not work then there are more elaborate ways to circumvent the "Media Dictatorship"... one way, not the most practical is to simply run crack the DVD movie itself & then proceed to simply watch it as you would any video file sitting on your hard disk (crack your copyright protection on your DVD & make it into a video file that sits on your hard disk -saves battery watching a movie this way too)...but this means downloading programs like DVD Shrink/DVD Decriptor, installing them & then having to wait a an hour or more for the movie to be cracked open so that you can then watch it in any computer with any player.
Not the most practical way, but it's a sure way of making sure you get to watch that movie.


Another way is to download a region cracking program, but the downside to this is that they are always going out of date & what worked on last years DVD drive manufacturer/model is not going to work on the latest.

Try & download the latest VLC player for Mac first....then we'll see.

Interesting. I already use VLC. I'll see if I can figure out how to change the default thingy you mention....

 

[davonz]

Depending on the model of the DVD, you can update the firmware we a modified one which has multi-region code. I usually end up having to do this on my laptop.