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Repair Disk permissions WTF just happened!

J

JReynolds

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 16, 2009
428
0
Where the Air Force sends me
My iMac has been freezing and is slow to wake up after sleep. I read that repair disk permissions may help the problem. Everything was working, it had four minutes to go and then the screen went black and has been for awhile. It's still on but no response.

Is this normal or is my shiz fudged?
 
Are you using Disk Utility while booted from the restore or install DVD?

Does moving the mouse not work? May it have gone to sleep?

What Mac OS X version do you use?
 
Hold the power button until it shuts down. Then wait 30 seconds and press it again to reboot. Then report what's happening, maybe it just crashed but I haven't heard that Disk Utility could cause something like that

EDIT: Damn you spinnerlys, you're always one click ahead me :p
 
spinnerlys said:
Are you using Disk Utility while booted from the restore or install DVD?

Does moving the mouse not work? May it have gone to sleep?

What Mac OS X version do you use?
Click to expand...

Not using any install or restore DVDs.

No mouse response and it's not a solid black screen like it's asleep, u can tell the screen is still on but no response.

10.6.3

Should I still hoof the power button down wait 30 etc...?
 
JReynolds said:
Not using any install or restore DVDs.

No mouse response and it's not a solid black screen like it's asleep, u can tell the screen is still on but no response.

10.6.3

Should I still hoof the power button down wait 30 etc...?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's time for force shut down. Hold it down until you hear it shutting down and then wait 30secs and reboot
 
Hellhammer said:
Yeah, it's time for force shut down. Hold it down until you hear it shutting down and then wait 30secs and reboot
Click to expand...

So it's up and running and everything looks normal on my desktop. Is there somewhere I should check to make sure?

My overall goal with the permissions attempt is to get my iMac back to it's old snappy self before it takes on the roll of main comp. If this doesn't speed it up are there any other little tricks to do it?
 
JReynolds said:
So it's up and running and everything looks normal on my desktop. Is there somewhere I should check to make sure?

My overall goal with the permissions attempt is to get my iMac back to it's old snappy self before it takes on the roll of main comp. If this doesn't speed it up are there any other little tricks to do it?
Click to expand...

Try repairing permissions again. Also, giving a try to OnyX might be worth it
 
JReynolds said:
I'll do the permissions again. I've looked at Onyx before and didn't know where to begin. That was awhile ago but my mac skills are probably the same. Should I start a new thread about help with onyx or just come back to this one if I need it?
Click to expand...

No need to start a new thread about every question. Just run everything under the "Cleaning" tab, but don't reboot before you've done them all
 
Sorry, I'd say with freezing and slow drive access as symptoms, my guess is dead drive.

These symptoms usually proceed, the HD kicking the bucket. Dying drive usually hard freezes the OS, locking the machine so the only thing moving might (just might) be the mouse with even the clock frozen.
 
Sun Baked said:
Sorry, I'd say with freezing and slow drive access as symptoms, my guess is dead drive.

These symptoms usually proceed, the HD kicking the bucket. Dying drive usually hard freezes the OS, locking the machine so the only thing moving might (just might) be the mouse with even the clock frozen.
Click to expand...

Damn that's happened a few times. Everything freezes, that beach ball appears, and only the mouse will move. This sounds expensive... :(

Hellhammer: onyx says "the volume needs to be repaired. Start ur mac from osx install disc choose utilities disk utilities...

Isn't that pretty much what I just did minus the startup disc?

The only disc I have in my house is the osx snow leopard upgrade DVD. Will that do what it wants me to do?

I also have the original discs from my macbook pro if that helps...
 
JReynolds said:
Damn that's happened a few times. Everything freezes, that beach ball appears, and only the mouse will move. This sounds expensive... :(

Hellhammer: onyx says "the volume needs to be repaired. Start ur mac from osx install disc choose utilities disk utilities...

Isn't that pretty much what I just did minus the startup disc?

The only disc I have in my house is the osx snow leopard upgrade DVD. Will that do what it wants me to do?
Click to expand...

Well, that means that your HD is dying. Yes, the 10.6 upgrade disk works. You can't repair the disk if it's running as good as you can if it's not running.

Now, verify the disk and repair permissions, tell us what the verifying comes up with and click fix if recommended
 
Hellhammer said:
Well, that means that your HD is dying. Yes, the 10.6 upgrade disk works. You can't repair the disk if it's running as good as you can if it's not running.

Now, verify the disk and repair permissions, tell us what the verifying comes up with and click fix if recommended
Click to expand...

I just verified and nothing came up. It just says it's complete. Should I repair disk permissions?

I'm repairing permissions now.
 
Get an external and ...

Start backing up the drive, most important files/folders first then slowly back down to everything else.

If your drive is dying, simply buying an external and using time machine will likely result in failure -- since a long uninterrupted use might not be possible.

Save the important files and preference folders (like stored e-mail if you need it) first ... then go for the I hope it'll work mass transfer of the iTunes/Video Folders, etc.

---

If you can save the important files in smaller chunks, get the bulk and then try to use Time Machine you should be OK.

Likely the long hard use of permission repair and such is overheating the mechanism/drive and forcing it to shut down.

Also turning Off Spotlight should prevent that from keeping the drive too busy while you save files.
 
Hellhammer said:
Well, that means that your HD is dying. Yes, the 10.6 upgrade disk works. You can't repair the disk if it's running as good as you can if it's not running.

Now, verify the disk and repair permissions, tell us what the verifying comes up with and click fix if recommended
Click to expand...

It does not mean his hard drive is dying. Volume corruption can be caused by a number of things.
 
Sun Baked said:
Get an external and ...

Start backing up the drive, most important files/folders first then slowly back down to everything else.
Click to expand...

Oooh that just @#$%. I have similar symptoms that cropped up this afternoon. My iBook is all but unusable: freezing with beachball, slow transitioning from one program to the next. I tried initiating CCC, but after an hour and a half only 1GB was copied. Do you suggest manual copy of segments? Looks like the copy process will take longer than replacing the drive.

Related question, what causes a sudden failure of the hard drive? I replaced the drive about 2 years ago for greater capacity. CCC worked like a dream then, but both drives were functional. I have had the computer just shut down, rather than go to sleep, at a dead battery a few times recently. Not the prettiest sound. If that's affecting my hard drive, what's causing the computer to turn off rather than go to sleep, bad battery?

Computer is a G4 12" iBook with OSX 10.4, 160 GB hdd (about 90-100 used), and RAM upgraded to 1.25GB. Using external 160GB hdd for backup.
 
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