iMac G5 disk permissions and Time Machine issues

[danhig123]

Hey guys.

I would really appreciate some help on a specific problem. I am in the process of updating my Dad's iMac G5 to Leopard. The upgrade went well and I went with the install over the top of Tiger option. I know this isn't ideal, and a fresh install would probably fix the problems I am having, but this wasn't really an option as there are a lot of users of this computer with a lot of data all over the place and a lot of preferences that would need restoring. Not to mention the programs that would need re-installing.

Anyway. The computer is running slower than it should and I have tried the usual of deleting unused documents and programs and generally tidying, though I wanted to repair disk permissions (via disk utility). The problem is that the progress bar goes part the way across then seems to freeze. It displays 'less than a minute remaining' but makes no progress whatsoever. I tried leaving it for quarter of an hour, but nothing.

My second problem is that Time Machine doesn't seem to want to backup the 100gb of data it needs to for the first time backup. It states that it is preparing to backup, but then nothing.

Once again, if it was my computer and my data I would have backed it up myself, run a fresh install and crossed my fingers, but it isn't so I have to err on the side of caution. Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Danny

 

[yadmonkey]

I've seen a few quirky Leopard installations when they were done by a simple upgrade. First thing I suggest you do is get this thing backed up manually. You could use Carbon Copy Cloner to do this.

You might try a Safe Boot and try repairing permissions again. If that doesn't work, your best bet is running the permissions repair From Disk Utility while booted to the 10.5 CD.

Does the disk pass verification (forgetting permissions for the moment) in Disk Utility? If not, run the repair while booted to the CD, although this is not ideal.

One you're backed up and have done everything you can with Disk Utility, you might have better luck reinstalling 10.5 using the Archive Install option. This might well fix the problems and usually leaves all programs working, with some exceptions. So you might have to reinstall one or two programs, but usually that's about it. People's user profiles will remain unchanged.

How much memory is installed on the G5? Leopard is definitely more of a hog than any previous OS, so anything less than 1GB will probably be slower than it should.

 

[danhig123]

Cheers for this yadmonkey!

I will try these fixes out a bit later when I have some time. My latest issue is that I can't seem to get Time Machine to go back in time. It has run a few hourly backups since I set it up. The backups must have worked because they take up space on the disk, however when I launch Time Machine it simply wont let me view back in time like it should.

Any ideas?