HELP!Finder/SoftwareUpd. probs

[flyfish29]

So I have kept my iBook pretty up to date. Software update said I think the last was 10.4.3 in November or December if I remember correctly.

Tonight I could not get the finder to work properly. I would click on my home user folder and one other folder and it would simply give me the beachball. It would also sort of freeze up or slow way down where it might take one minute for the menu bar to show that I clicked on. I would sometimes be able to force quit the finder to relaunch and sometimes have to power down and restart.

That was problem enough. I got home and the mail, safari, etc. would all work fine. Finder still had issues. I went to software update and proceeded to do the 10.4.5 combined update and it got all the way though until it says optimizing and will not continue on. It has been like this for two hours. I have not installed any new software or changed anything recently.

What should I do at this point- Should I power down, try and force quit software update, what???? HELP. I can access my files on the desktop and any in the recent menus for Word but can't access my regular files using the finder window.

 

[mad jew]

I'm guessing you'll have cancelled it by now, right? Maybe give fsck a go as a start. Tell us what it reports back.

 

[flyfish29]

The place it froze up at was optimization and probably 90% across with the blue status bar. I did try to cancel it and couldn't. I let it go past midnight and still no change- desptie the grey update ball spinning, etc. I had to powerdown the machine. this morning I started it up and am getting ready to try the finder out again on those files. I will let you know how that goes and disk utility later today when I get home.

thanks

 

[mad jew]

Excellent. While you're at it, maybe check other accounts on the same machine. I doubt it's a user account problem though.

 

[flyfish29]

So here is the latest- I checked other user name account and I could access all folders in that alternate user name but when I tried to access my main folder with my admin. user account it would freze in the finder window.

I removed the finder preferences file in my admin. user account called com.apple.finder.plist

Right now everything is working fine on the entire iBook except when I go to access my Admin. account folders It doesn't matter if I try and access those folders by way of the finder of Word using Open command. It freezes up both ways.

However, I was able to three of my most important folders to the desktop after letting the spinning beach ball spin for about an hour. Now when I access the copies of the folders on the desktop it works fine? However, if I even try to click on the Admin. account main folder the beach ball goes spinning- go figure. So any ideas here?


I am close to just making backups of those folders and reinstalling, but would like to find out what the heck happened to cause this wierd activity.

thanks,

 

[mad jew]

Strange. It's a hefty download, but I'd try the 10.4.5 combo update manually, without Software Updater. I' not sure how much more successful it'd be but it might be worth a try.

Having said that, incomplete system upgrades are a nasty thing to recover from. It may just be easier to reinstall.

 

[flyfish29]

woops- forgot to tell you I tried that. for some reason it still says the last upgrade I have is 10.4.3 last Nov. or dec.

What is weird is this started before I did the upgrade to 10.4.3- I had actualy not installed any new software for quite a while when it started happening.

If you think of anything else to check let me know.

thanks