Apps wont open.

Have you tried repairing permissions?

 

1. Have you tried a reboot?
2. You can repair permissions via the install disk.

 

Try resetting PRAM

Hold down [CMD]-[OPT]-[P]-[R] on boot, and wait to hear the startup chime two or three times. That and repairing permissions are wonderful little magic tricks that can fix many problems.

Like grapes911 said, try using your install disk to deal with permissions.

If all else fails, you could do an archive and reinstall of your operating system.

 

Haven't restarted yet? Okay, do that first without doing anything else, and see if that fixes it.

 

Try the reboot first. Assuming that doesn't work, pop in that install disk and hold down c. Look for the disk utility somewhere (I don't remember exactly where it is) and then repair permissions.

 

If you need the Disk Utility from the install disc, it will come from a menu on the top of the screen, with a few other apps listed as well. Make sure you select your language first

 

Yes, just do a standard restart before doing anything else. When was the last time you restarted? I've heard of odd things happening in OS X after going for a few weeks without a restart.

 

FIRST RESTART, then try other things.

On a side note, you should repair permissions every few weeks.

 

Restart is the best thing for you to do right now then try repairing permission from the disk utility.


Bless

 

It isn't necessary to repair permissions that often, but it certainly won't hurt anything. I'd say the most important things to run on a schedule are the maintenance scripts.

Isn't Mac OS X supposed to execute the daily script automatically every night around 3am? (presuming the computer isn't asleep)

 

Check to see if you have recovered files in the trash or maybe you got more mail attached files...they r saved to your HD(POP3)


Bless

 

I've never seen disk space just disappear like that before, except for hard drives that were failing and losing sectors. I have no idea what exactly OS X does when it launches an app, but it might be creating or modifying files somewhere.

If you're curious, maybe you could do a "Find" for files created or modified within the last hour or so.

 

Sorry for the delay...I'm still at work

Go to the Desktop, and press [CMD]-[F] on the keyboard. This brings up the Find tool, much like the Find tool in pre-Tiger systems. Now that I've checked it out, it appears that it won't let you search for files only a few hours old...must be at least a day.

Either way, first remove all search conditions except for one. Click on the Volume "your_hd_name" button near the top of the Find window. Below it, there are search parameters. For the parameters, select "Created" -> "Within Last" -> "1" -> "Days". The search should begin automatically, and items will appear as they are found.

I just ran the search on my computer, and found 233 files created within the last day. Most of them are random documents that the system uses. Since so much of your HD space disappeared, there are a few possibilities (in no particular order):

1) You'll get hundreds of thousands of random system files that were created.
2) There'll be a handful of huge files that you didn't create.
3) You'll see nothing except the normal files, which means one of two things:

a) The files are invisible and the search won't detect them.
b) Our assumption that files were created is completely bogus and there's something else screwy going on. Perhaps a damaged HD, but hopefully not (unless you're under warranty and want a new HD for your iBook).​

Sorry I can't be of more help

Good luck with it, and all that!

 

Get something more comprehensive to take a look at your HD. I suggest TechTool Pro or something.

If you bought AppleCare with your iBook, it came with a boot disc that had TechTool on it, I think.

If you really want that 0.45GB back though, the best way might be to format your harddrive. That's assuming there's nothing mechanically wrong with it, that is