help a novice restore computer to health >

[QuinnEskimo]

Ok, so I know I've been starting a lot of threads lately trying to figure my deal out. I've been trying all sorts of things...

- I did every procedure laid out in the sticky thread "Basic OS Troubleshooting"

- I've been repairing permissions daily now (even as "root")


Some of these prcedures seem to work temporarily, some not at all. but things keep coming back around to *something* being "weird". I can't explain it to you in any sort of technical terms, but I can tell you a few random errors and issues that have been happening.

- un provoked stalling (spinny ball) for 5,10,30 seconds at a time. This seems to mainly happen when I have both Safari 2.0.2 (yes i've cleared my caches) open while also running Adobe apps (photoshop, illustrator, design stuff...). One action that seems to provoke this is trying to fill in a form - be it in the url box, or logging in on a website. But this also happens in Adobe Apps.

- just recently I couldn't make a new folder on the desktop, I'd get an error message

- not being able to save a file to documents folder from an adobe app. got error message (disk error)

- other global and system errors.

- having to force-quit programs regularly.


Basically I'd like some help in a total shure-fire re-vaamping of the system (shure-fire - ha ha). I believe what I'm asking about is an "Archive & Install", yes?

I've got a 60gig external hard drive and 20gig (ipod) external hard drive to work with.

I can get any program I need to do this.

Can anyone walk me through something to just clear all my sh*t out and start fresh and new? (not too fresh... i don't want to loose all my apps and work!!)

I would really,really,really,really appreciate any help and THANK everyone who's helped me so far:
-MacsWork
-rman

You guys rock!!! Thanks agian for all your help
(did anyone get this far???)

 

[toulouse]

Did you find a solution? If so please post it so others with the same nightmare can wake up ok.

 

[surfwax95]

I would recommend downloading a program called iBackup, it's free and let's you back up all of your files to an External HD, 60GB *should* cover your entire Home folder and Apps. (There's no point in backing up programs that come installed with OSX) Do a backup and include all of your .plist files so that everything will be as if you never left.

After you scour your System folder and make sure you have everything backed up:

Insert the Install Disk.
Restart the computer.
Start holding down "C" before you hear the Apple chime, don't stop until you see a Mac OSX prompt.
On one of the install windows, there's a button called "Install Options" or something like that...
Check "Erase and Install".
Let it run.

Download iBackup again on your fresh system.
Open it and click "Restore".
Direct it to the folder it created on your External.
Let it run.

If everything goes smoothly, you should be staring at your old computer...that works. :mac:

The reason I would take this route is because "Archive and Install" basically means "Put all the junk on my old computer in one huge folder and wrap the new OS around it."
It makes things very tedious to put back into place, and sometimes it doesn't get everything.

This is just a suggestion, but this worked for me flawlessly, I moved from my 12" to 15" Powerbook in about 2 hours. Just like I left it.

Good luck with it!

 

[QuinnEskimo]

If everything goes smoothly, you should be staring at your old computer...that works. :mac:

EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thanks! So does iBackup let you choose specifically which apps to backup and which to leave alone?

 

[surfwax95]

Yes, it does.

It's a series of check boxes along each app.

 

[QuinnEskimo]

one more thing - - are all the .plist files going to be in library/preferences?

is it hd/library/preferences or hd/users/"username"/library/preferences

 

[QuinnEskimo]

YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED!!!



It's was scary, but also kind of a big relief. I took my machine (powerbook G4 15") back in after it completely crashed... I'm talkin' BLINKY QUESTION MARK FOLDER OF DEATH when trying to boot.

Well, it turns out all these glitches I've been experiencing (see all my previous threads) were due to a hardware problem, not a system problem! And that problem was....

ta daaaaa...

The physical wired connections to the hard drive were coming un-connected! The tech said he'd never seen anything like it before. So, by the time my computer crashed, it wasn't detecting the hard drive at all. Crazy...

bill for tech work..... $0
knowing it wasn't my fault.... priceless

 

[surfwax95]

Awesome, glad to hear it, that's a lot easier than doing a wipe/install.