numerous files are now gibberish

[jenn]

This stinks...

I have a Dual Processor G5 (OS 10.2.8). Lately it's been crashing-- a lot. Sometimes all it takes is opening one application (doesn't seem to matter which one, imail often will do it) and boom.

After 2 crashes in quick succession yesterday, I realized that a couple of my files had been corrupted. Today I'm realizing just how many.

Numerous files in Dreamweaver are gibberish...often it's just one fiie in a folder, the rest will be fine. Several excel documents have been written over with the contents of emails. Several Word docs are gibberish. Some emails have been written over with the contents of other emails. At least one photoshop file that was fine two days ago will no longer open-- I get a message saying that the format is not compatible.

and to add insult to injury, all appts on all three calendars (iCal) are gone.

Everything important is backed up, so this isn't as big a crisis as it could be, but it's pretty disconcerting. Any thoughts as to what might be going on?

(For more detail, I'm running Norton Firewall & Antivirus (i know many of you don't think it's necessary but when things started acting screwy it made me nervous, double protection can't hurt)...also use Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash, and OfficeMac. peripherals- HP Photosmart printer, Epson scanner. I know HP said their printer drivers caused problems for one version of OS10.2, but said 10.2.8 was fine.)

 

[rman]

Just wondering, did you install anything lately and when did the problem start? Have you may any changesd to the system before the problem? Did you have the problem before or after the installation of the Norton application?

 

[jenn]

Just wondering, did you install anything lately and when did the problem start? Have you may any changesd to the system before the problem? Did you have the problem before or after the installation of the Norton application?

I installed Norton Firewall a couple of days ago, after the frequent crashes started but before I started losing actual data. Everything else was installed shortly after I bought the computer, too quickly to tell whether there were any pre-existing problems; I haven't made any other system changes.

I've had the occasional crash since the beginning, but always assumed that was my fault-- i.e when I have dreamweaver, illustrator, AND flash open, and then try to run a memory-heavy action in Photoshop.

The crazy, inexcusable crashes started 4-5 days ago.

 

[Murlyn]

My computer can handle all those programs open and I have a TiBook 667 so you really shouldnt be crashing. I don't trust Norton.. in all the years my computer has become more unstable whenever I used their products. I really don't know if that is the problem though

 

[rman]

I have read bad things about Norton and OS X. But I can not say that is your problem. If you have not repaired permissions since you installed your software, I would do that not. In some case the permission on some files are missed up during the installation of an application. Repairing the permission usually resolve most problems.

In case you don't know where the disk utility application is located ( OS X -> Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility).

Then choose your OS X disk partation, then click repair disk permissions. I don't know if this will help. it might resolve some problems.