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Dammit! Something needs to be done about finder!
- Thread starter SC68Cal
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This might be a HD going bad issue. Had this happen to me before.
Would suggest that you check out your HD as it may just happen again.
Hopefully you have a back up for all your files.
I agree that it has its shortfalls, but in all honesty I find it doesn't hang any more than Explorer. Both apps are quite robust and hard-working, but neither is particularly stable. 
I was trying to take an image of one external HD and image it to a different external with disk utility and that took the whole thing down. I'm very upset right now because I swear, this is at least the 4th time this has happened, and at least the 6th time my itunes library data file has been hosed...... I mean it's like the dang library file just doesn't want to live!
Normally I restore from a backup, but it seems to always catch me with my pants down when I don't have a backup or a recent one.
God, not even windows screwed up this badly. Come on apple, what is going on here.
Normally I restore from a backup, but it seems to always catch me with my pants down when I don't have a backup or a recent one.
God, not even windows screwed up this badly. Come on apple, what is going on here.
I agree with the wise and brave sushi. Get Disk Utility to verify the disks involved. Even if Finder freezes for me, it's usually only momentarily as it does its thing. Giving it time usually gets it back on its feet.
Both verified.
(sigh....) I just gotta leave my darn backup HD alone! You would think after the millionth time that OS X eats my data I'd stop playing around with my backups and just leave them alone!
Good news is that I don't think I've lost any actual data. Just the preference lists and index-type files that tell programs where the actual data is.
I think the best news is that I run as a non-admin account for my day-to-day. So I shouldn't have had my system-wide settings hosed.
(sigh....) I just gotta leave my darn backup HD alone! You would think after the millionth time that OS X eats my data I'd stop playing around with my backups and just leave them alone!
Good news is that I don't think I've lost any actual data. Just the preference lists and index-type files that tell programs where the actual data is.
I think the best news is that I run as a non-admin account for my day-to-day. So I shouldn't have had my system-wide settings hosed.
Any suggestions for stress testing?
This is something I really don't need right now. I want to just get through finals week in one piece.
In the meantime, I'm going to let Mail download about three thousand e-mails from Gmail. Thank GOD I never turned off archiving.
Two programs I would highly recommend:
- Tech Tool Pro by Micromat.
- And if you have a PC handy, attach your Mac HD to it and use Spin Rite by Gibson Research. It works very well at recovering data from a bad HD as well as testing the HD.
Well, is the SMART status verified in Disk Utility too?
My SMART status was verified before mine died. Disk Utility is not the be all and end all of hard drive tests.
I figured out the HDD was failing by putting my ear against the spot where it is in my iBook and hearing the clicking death.
Agreed. All software-based hardware testing apps are limited. The key is to not rely upon them, but to still take in what they say (if they say anything).
Very true most honorable Mad Jew!
Having said that, I would recommend taking a look at Spin Rite. It is one of the few programs that I know that really tests a HD. The only problem is that the current version only will run on the PC platform. What I do when I have a Mac HD that is having problems is that I take it out of the Mac and attach it to my PC and Spin Rite does it's thing. It works beautifully and has saved my bacon on a few occasions. I would highly recommend it. It isn't cheap but is well worth it.
try
You should try CCC Carbon Copy Cloner. It is shareware that you can use for free, at least for awhile. I trust it much more than Apple's Disk Utility.
You should try CCC Carbon Copy Cloner. It is shareware that you can use for free, at least for awhile. I trust it much more than Apple's Disk Utility.
Some external hard drives' AC adaptors are not up to the task of continuous reading and writing, esp. with larger drive capacities. (they never seem to show up a problem in normal use, but get them doing 10 - 20 Gb at a time and blooie!) The power supplies do a thermal shutdown, sometimes only for a second or two, but that's enough to throw a major monkeywrench into a transfer.
SMART has to be among the stupidest hardware verification tools around... Has anyone ever seen SMART report a problem? Putting a microphone in the drive bay would be a more reliable solution.
Every now and then my Seagate internal drive goes into a mode where it sounds like its torturing a mouse... Just squeaks and squeaks and squeaks. SMART says everything's just hunky-dory. I don't know which of the two drives it is so I just keep my backups current and wait for one of them to fall over.
I've seen the SMART status fail on a dying drive. It would be nice if you didn't have to open up Disk Utility to get this info, thoughmaybe it could appear on startup or something, as lots of people might not know to fire up Disk Utility when things start to slow down, etc.
Here is a plug for Spin Rite.
Just had a HD fail. I was backing up about 50GB of files to an external FW HD. The Finder locked up. So I restarted the computer.
Result, the external FW HD missing. I tried all the techniques that I know via Mac OS X (didn't bother with Mac OS 9 tricks this time) to no avail. This of course included Disk Utility and TechTool Pro among other things. Could not even see the HD -- even when I connected it via the IDE cable inside my Mac (PowerMac G4).
On to plan B. I put the HD into my PC. I have a tray slot for HDs. Booted Spin Rite. Let it run over night. Put the HD back into the external FW enclosure. All files are there. Right now I am backing them up to another HD.
Love Spin Rite. Well worth the cost. The only negative is that you need a PC to use it...and access to your HD so that you can connect it to the PC. But if you have a PC handy, Spin Rite is the best HD recover software there is bar none.
BTW, you can run Spin Rite from a floppy disk. It is a small application and is written in assembly language so it is fast. So you don't need a powerful PC to use it.
Just had a HD fail. I was backing up about 50GB of files to an external FW HD. The Finder locked up. So I restarted the computer.
Result, the external FW HD missing. I tried all the techniques that I know via Mac OS X (didn't bother with Mac OS 9 tricks this time) to no avail. This of course included Disk Utility and TechTool Pro among other things. Could not even see the HD -- even when I connected it via the IDE cable inside my Mac (PowerMac G4).
On to plan B. I put the HD into my PC. I have a tray slot for HDs. Booted Spin Rite. Let it run over night. Put the HD back into the external FW enclosure. All files are there. Right now I am backing them up to another HD.
Love Spin Rite. Well worth the cost. The only negative is that you need a PC to use it...and access to your HD so that you can connect it to the PC. But if you have a PC handy, Spin Rite is the best HD recover software there is bar none.
BTW, you can run Spin Rite from a floppy disk. It is a small application and is written in assembly language so it is fast. So you don't need a powerful PC to use it.
I'm not the only one here that has this problem
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2006/12/11/Mac-Crash
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2006/12/11/Mac-Crash