Three tremendous problems with my Mac. Please help me. (long read)

[DismantleDesign]

This all started last night. For a few days I have been deleting some files off my Mac Book Pro to make some space. To answer your question before you ask it, I did not delete any important files. Just images and sound files that I did not need anymore. I won't delete anything if I am not sure.

Ever since I bought my mac and set it up, the security on it has been too secure. Every time I made a new folder or tried to save a photoshop file (for example) in the folder, it tells me I don't have permission so I have to go to the info pane and change it to read and write. So I decided to finally open the info pane for the HD and say "apply to enclosed items" so everything became read and write.

A few minutes later I notice my external HD containing all my music won't let me access it. It tells me "The folder “DDMUSIC” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents." So I look at the info pane and every user is set to custom and the HD icon has a silver padlock on the bottom left corner. There is no "lock" option in general info under "shared" option to unclick. It lets me unlock the orange padlock on the bottom right hand corner of the window pane, but when i click custom to change it it flickers and stays custom no matter what. I tried to repair disk permissions on it but "repair disk permissions" and "verify disk permisions" are both grayed out/ unclickable. So I restart. Mac wont boot up. Gear just keeps on spinning. Wont boot up in safe mode either. So I get fed up and put in the mac osx disc and erase everything and reinstall Leopard. It prompts me with the option of restoring from my Time Machine drive. So I try that but it tells me the backup was from a newer version of osx. So I install snow leopard. It prompts me with the same thing but when I say okay, it doesn't acknowledge that there is a drive attached. So I just boot up to the desktop and open Time Machine. I try to restore but it keeps wanting to put a folder named Macintosh HD in a folder called volumes. So I let it do that. But when i try to replace the items inside the real Macintosh HD, it wont let me. It either tells me i dont have permission or my mac cant run without the folder in question.

I had to reinstall all my adobe programs. Then Garage band wasnt working. It had a problem finding the instrument library so I reinstalled iLife and it still isnt working. Please help me:

1. Fix my external drive permissions without losing the files.
2. Restore from my latest time machine backup.
3. Make my mac less secure (i dont care if you think this is a bad idea, its my mac, sorry if that sounds rude, but please)

 

[chscag]

Your post is somewhat confusing and it appears that at least some of the problems you're experiencing have been self inflicted.

I suggest erasing the hard drive and then install Snow Leopard clean. After which you can attempt to do limited restoring from your Time Machine backup.

Also, your MBP is not overly secure. There are certain files and folders that are system only and normally should not be accessed. The permissions problems you were having, as I said above, are likely to be self inflicted. That's why I think it's best to start over with a clean install. But that's up to you.

Once you get the system running right, the external hard drive problem may go away. However, if you still can't access the drive, post back and we'll figure something out.

Regards.

Regards.

 

[DismantleDesign]

Should I erase it using disk utility? When I put in the Snow Leopard disc, it doesn't prompt me with the option to erase before installing like the Leopard disc does.

 

[chscag]

Just boot with your Snow Leopard DVD. Escape from the install process and select Utilities, Disk Utilities, from the top menu. From here you can erase and format the drive. After that, install Snow Leopard plus applications.

Once you have Snow Leopard installed, use your Time Machine backup to restore data.

Regards.

 

[PastorKenny]

reinstalling Apps

I am considering doing this too, Will all the apps reinstall automatic or will I have to re-install and go through all the process of installing them and re-authorizing (for lack of a better word) them?