Damn 10.7.2 Update and FileVault

So for some reason I am months behind on updating my Macbook Air to 10.7.2.  I saw I had some updates available today and let them run their course.  First off, I need to mention I use FileVault on my laptop.  FileVault is a full disk encryption method (that probably doesn't stand up to deep forensics based on what I know from TrueCrypt and full disk SSD encryption issues) but it is good enough to keep the thieves from getting my data.

My update hung when it was almost complete and failed to change for about 30 mins.  I made the decision to hard restart it to see what would happen.  The boot screen came up, asked me for my credentials, and then when the Apple logo appeared the little pin wheel just spun and spun.  I let it go for an hour to no avail.  I tried DiskWarrior, rBoot, and the restore USB stick that came with my Air.  None of them worked.  They couldn't see the HD for some reason.  I even tried a Time Machine restore and even then the HD wouldn't come up.

I reset my PRAM (Command-Option-P-R through two reboot cycles), I booted into verbose mode (Command-V; hangs on the Bluetooth driver), verbose safe mode (Command-Shift-V; hangs on some line that I have no idea what it means), and finally tried the Lion recovery mode (Command-R).

Oh...I need to digress shortly.  I have Time Machine backups via an AirPort Extreme.  The backup is within a sparsebundle.  Once upon a time when my iMac hard drive crashed my TM backup was corrupted too so I was nearly up sh!t creek.  Thank God for Super Duper.  Nonetheless, before I headed to the Apple Store or did anything drastic I tried to verify my TM backup was still good.  I used Back It Up 2 to attempt to get access to the TM back up and received a nice little "resource unavailable" message from my sparsebundle. Normally you can double click the sparsebundle and it will mount just like a normal disk.  Not this one.  I figured maybe it was because the back up was from a different computer than my iMac with different permissions???  I never had any luck mounting it which made me sweat.  I could see the bands within the contents so I knew the data wasn't encrypted but it still made me sweat.

Back to Lion's recovery mode; I like the simplicity of the recovery mode.  I immediately had an option to restore from a Time Machine backup.  When I walked through the steps based on the logic I was given, I never received an option to make the destination drive my laptop hard drive.  This is the same issue I ran into before using the Snow Leopard restore method via the USB restore stick.  I was stumped.  I did recall that a few screens back, one of the source drives for the TM backup search was my SSD.  I took a few steps back in the recovery and chose the SSD.  It asked for my password, which I entered, and then acted like nothing happened.  It actually removed the laptop HD from the list of drives available as TM source drives.  When I landed on the destination dialog, THERE IT WAS!  I guess I had to unlock the drive first before the recovery process could even figure out what it was.

Nonetheless, I have an hour and a half left on my restore.  Cross my fingers and I'll let you know how it turns out.

I probably should mention I noticed a handful of people posting on apple's forums with a similar issue....very few alternatives seemed to work.  I strongly recommend Time Machine, Super Duper, Carbonite, Backblaze, etc.

I actually use Backblaze for my iMac (I should note that their recent service upgrade offers UNLIMITED SIZE BACKUPS AND they pull up all file types...outside of system files!!!!!) but have most of my recent files backed up via DropBox.  My ass was saved because I am trying out Syncplicity and tied it to my Desktop.  My most recent work file is on my desktop.  Thank you Syncplicity.

Non-removable batteries are better?

I think I may be coming around on Apple's concept of having a battery that cannot be removed.  I never thought of this until now.  I balked when the new Droid Razr came out with a non-removable battery.

I have a Prey Project account and recommend signing up.  It is a "free-mium" site that offers tracking of your laptop, desktop, and phone if they are stolen or lost.  I have heard that in NYC, cabbies are paid for lost phones and are paid even more when they hand a phone over that has its battery removed.  Purpose for the incentive - information.  Smart phones have a treasure trove of data on them these days; all of which is probably not security hardened like computer hardware and software are getting.

A thief can still turn off a device holding down the power button on most phones but I think it is a lot easier for them to pull the battery.  If turning it off was so simple then why would a "fence" care that the battery is out or not?