OS X Corrupt on My System -- What Happened?

[GodBless]

Although I can still use my system and it is stable, I have been experiencing some very strange computer system problems.

First I noticed that when I selected the Shutdown or Restart options, OS X would log me out instead. Then I noticed that Spotlight is categorizing my Applications as Documents. Also I am not able to create any new accounts. OS X did create home directories for the accounts I tried to create, but OS X doesn't recognize them as official accounts.

I installed Tiger from my other Mac to this computer because my combo drive on this computer sometimes scratches disks. I don't know if that makes any difference but it ran fine for the first few weeks I was using it.

Any advice on correcting the problem without reinstalling OS X?

 

[jeremy.king]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/89736/

Also run the housekeeping scripts in terminal

sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

 

[GodBless]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/89736/

Also run the housekeeping scripts in terminal

sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

Yeah, I already tried repairing permissions and running the daily, weekly and monthly scripts but none of this worked. Perhaps I have a corrupt system file or something that somebody knows about that I am unaware of.

 

[Dave Marsh]

It sounds to me it's time to boot up from your other Mac, start this one up in Target FireWire mode, and reinstall MacOS X Tiger using Archive and Install.

I'd delete those problematic user accounts before doing that, however. I'd also make sure you do a Repair Permissions using Disk Utility first (while running from the defective OS partition). That last seems problematic I know, but Disk Utility won't set the proper permissions when run from another startup partition. If you want to skip this, then run Disk Warrior 3.0.3 from a good startup drive (HD or CD) to rebuild the damaged drive's data structure before running the Archive and Install. Tech Tool Pro 4.0.4 will also work, if you have it.

It would be extremely unwise to continue to use the defective OS installation. You're risking losing everything on that drive if it corrupts your data structure any more.

 

[GodBless]

It sounds to me it's time to boot up from your other Mac, start this one up in Target FireWire mode, and reinstall MacOS X Tiger using Archive and Install.

I'd delete those problematic user accounts before doing that, however. I'd also make sure you do a Repair Permissions using Disk Utility first (while running from the defective OS partition). That last seems problematic I know, but Disk Utility won't set the proper permissions when run from another startup partition. If you want to skip this, then run Disk Warrior 3.0.3 from a good startup drive (HD or CD) to rebuild the damaged drive's data structure before running the Archive and Install. Tech Tool Pro 4.0.4 will also work, if you have it.

It would be extremely unwise to continue to use the defective OS installation. You're risking losing everything on that drive if it corrupts your data structure any more.

Thanks for the advice. I knew that I was going to reinstall it one day or another because it didn't feel right running it corrupt. I think I'll wait another day or two for 10.4.2 to come out before I do it instead of a couple weeks down the road.

 

[MDA]

Thanks for the advice. I knew that I was going to reinstall it one day or another because it didn't feel right running it corrupt. I think I'll wait another day or two for 10.4.2 to come out before I do it instead of a couple weeks down the road.

It could be more than another day or two.

http://www.macosrumors.com/

 

[IJ Reilly]

Your problem could be as simple as a corrupted preference file, which certainly doesn't call for a complete OSX install. Several tools can check for corrupted preference files. My favorite is AppleJack, which can be found on VersionTracker. Well worth trying before you go to the trouble of a reinstall. Even money you won't have to go that route in the end.

 

[GodBless]

Your problem could be as simple as a corrupted preference file, which certainly doesn't call for a complete OSX install. Several tools can check for corrupted preference files. My favorite is AppleJack, which can be found on VersionTracker. Well worth trying before you go to the trouble of a reinstall. Even money you won't have to go that route in the end.

Thanks for the software recommendation. I'll try it out and see how it goes.

 

[Sedulous]

Yeah, I had a similar issue crop up recently on my powerbook. Of course, there is the possible issue that I had not ever done a clean install (OS 9.2 - 10.1 - 10.2 - 10.3 - 10.4) and that had something to do with it.

What I experienced was mainly problems with failure to copy files (and partially copied files often gave non-sensical errors when deleting). Additionally, I lost all my mail and entries in my address book. Other things might have gotten corrupted too.

I performed the usual routines (repair perms, cron jobs, prebinds, /sbin/fsck) but they didn't help. I even tried to repair disk, which gave me a error -60. In any case, it sucked but at least it now has a fresh install.

 

[GodBless]

Your problem could be as simple as a corrupted preference file, which certainly doesn't call for a complete OSX install. Several tools can check for corrupted preference files. My favorite is AppleJack, which can be found on VersionTracker. Well worth trying before you go to the trouble of a reinstall. Even money you won't have to go that route in the end.

Thanks for the software recommendation. I'll try it out and see how it goes.

Well it corrected my problem with Tiger creating and recognizing users but both my spotlight and restart / shutdown problems still exist. Thanks for the software though because I might have a use for it in the future.

 

[Dave Marsh]

Waiting for MacOS X 10.4.2 is probably a good idea. Download the combo updater to skip the updates for 10.4.1. OS X installations actually proceed pretty quickly. I'd guess an hour would be more than enough to get an Archive & Install going, with the combo update taking another 10-15 minutes.