i killed my computer. i mean *really* destroyed it. deleted stuff i shouldn’t have, couldn’t access any of my adobe apps, and couldn’t get it to restore from time machine backup. i had a blank blue screen. but i was able to boot into safe mode and boot from the os disk. so i started from scratch and hoped for the best. worst case scenario is that my time machine drive/backup file was corrupted and i’d lose all my apps for which i don’t have the original discs. i was less worried about the apps than i was the files but i was pretty sure i could retrieve my files from some time machine backup. and even if i couldn’t, i had a backup from a couple months ago of most of my stuff. it would be painful to recreate, but not impossible or life-ending. yes, i would lose my lightroom library and its database of changes i made to various photos, but i keep diligent backups of photos (2 backups; used to be 3 (!)). itunes wasn’t a great loss either, but all those custom playlists and ratings would be painful to redo, for sure.

first, reinstall the os and then the upgraded os (didn’t know if i had an upgrade disc or the whole os). then update that os to the most recent version. then update all the software under software update. then connect to time machine and use migration assistant to restore my docs, apps, and settings. i left for the middle part of the day and was greeted with a “system restored successfully” message when i got home. *whew*