UPDATE: OMGOMGOMG! I FIXED IT! I DON’T NEED TO REINSTALL! IT’S SAVING AGAIN! HURRAH!!!!

The sad tale below has been totally wiped clean – found something where someone else had trouble saving their desktop background, so I deleted my com.apple.Desktop.plist file, which fixed that. Then realised the saving problem was actually to do with my administrator accounts, so I found something about resetting those – and hey presto!!! AND it’s running faster too! BONUS!

— Part One below —

Today, I am sad to say, has been a totally wasted day. I may have a little wail here: you have been warned.

I actually set an alarm and woke myself at a semi-respectable hour today because I wanted to get loads done to make up the last couple of lazy days. Djeli had suggested that we go to a liquidation auction in Knightsbridge today to see if we could get me a replacement Mac cheaply, but after a bit of a chat, and having found the Snow Leopard upgrade discs a few days ago, we decided that instead I should have a go at reinstalling my current ailing machine.

So far, so funky. I set a backup running and went into the shower. When I checked back, I discovered it had run out of room, so I dug my larger backup disk out of a box (yes, I know it should have been in use already) and set it running again. Then spent the next four hours doing this and that: writing Christmas cards, making lists of software I’d need to install and things I absolutely mustn’t forget to do before starting the reinstall like I forgot to do That Time, wrapping Christmas presents, pulling the Christmas tree out of its box and working out a way to display it so it’s neither in the way nor invisible (we only have a 2-ft tree, which was fine in our first tiny house in the UK but looks a bit lost in a soon-to-be 5-bedroom terrace house!). I went out and bought a broom, even, and swept all the vast amount of dust off the landings and the stairs.

When, finally, the backup finished – about half past 6 – I figured I should double-check which apps I’d bought via the Mac App Store, so I could be sure which other apps I really needed to make sure I knew where the install files were for. So I opened up the App Store. There are my apps, mostly saying “Installed”, a couple saying “Upgrade” BUT two of the apps I use most frequently, Pages and Numbers, are sitting there smugly without any kind of install button saying “Requires OS X v10.7”.

My laptop is old. This is why it has problems, which is why I need to reinstall it. It does not have the grunt to run either Lion or Mountain Lion, so it cannot install v10.7 at all. But it seems that Apple doesn’t care about this and want me to upgrade anyway. While I dislike having to continually upgrade stuff, I probably wouldn’t hesitate – if I could do it! But I can’t, and it’s starting to look like there is no way I can reinstall my computer to have it shiny-clean and hopefully working properly and keep access to Pages, Numbers and most likely iHomework which I use to track my college work and which has recently been bugging me to install a Lion-only update. AAAAARGH!

Now I know there are bound to be a few bright sparks out there (you know who you are!) who will leap in here with a knowing wink and proclaiming the virtues of a) Windows b) Linux or c) OpenOffice or similar. I appreciate your efforts, but a) I like OS X – it runs all my software (unlike Linux) and is polite to me (unlike Windows) and b) I’m really rather fond of Pages too – it keeps itself nice and simple with no stupid complicated hidden settings that you need to switch off to prevent it from making you throw the whole machine out the window in frustration (I think we all know which popular office suite I’m thinking of here). Thank you. I am considering every alternative, I assure you!

SO. No real work has been achieved today and it’s now half past 8, so it seems unlikely although I shall try to bottle up my wail and do something useful shortly.

WAH!