Snow Leopard stability

[BileGhost]

I have a MacBook Pro 15inch i7 2010 stock. I've never experienced the stability I had with Leopard, the most disappointing thing being that when a program crashes, the Finder crashes, so I can't force quit and I am instead required to hold the power button down until it turns off.

Recently, I've experienced so many crashes it is just not funny. It's become beyond bearable and I'm finally seeking a solution. I was hoping someone could help me get this problem sorted, as I assume not everyone has this problem.

Some important things to note:

-I have Windows 7 installed via bootcamp.
-I originally transferred my data by backing up onto an external HD with Time Machine, then restoring to my new computer.
-I have repaired permissions and the drive by booting my OS X install disk.
-I have created a new user, it has made little difference.

Any guidance would be much appreciated

Thanks

 

[stridemat]

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My guess is that your problems have stemmed from the TM restore from a different machine. Is a clean install feasiable?

 

[BileGhost]

I would have expected the restore would have only restored files to the specific user, meaning creating a new user should have fixed it.

In any case, although a reinstall isn't beyond feasible, if I'm going to do that I'd wait until Lion is released and install that instead. I have a perfectly good version of Windows I can use. At this point in time I'd rather fix the problem than start again.

 

[satcomer]

With a Boot Camp partition open System Preferences->SpotLight, Privacy tab and add your Windows Partition to the Ignore list. Spotlight doesn't like the Boot Camp partition format because it only likes HFS+ drives (Mac OS Extended).

 

[BileGhost]

Thanks, I've done that. I'll see if I see an increase in stability over the next few days. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[BileGhost]

After a few days of it being mostly stable, crashes started to increase. Just now, a program crash froze the whole computer.

The biggest problem isn't the fact the programs are crashing, it's the fact that I can't force quit them because the finder freezes as well.

 

[James_C]

Trying to pin down the problem is going to be difficult. It sounds like you have already covered the basic steps. Snow Leopard has been rock solid on my Mac Pro and MBP. I think you are going to have to go for a clean install. Reinstalling from TM will not fix your problem. You clearly have a conflict or corruption somewhere.

 

[Damo01]

backup a system that has problems and doing a full system restore from that backup is basically going to overwrite the clean fresh re installed system.

 

[BileGhost]

It's nice to hear that SL has been rock solid, it means I can start blaming my computer again instead of Apple. Never in the time I have had this machine (and therefore Snow Leopard) have I been able to CMD + OPT + ESC to force quit a program. If I do it when nothing is wrong, it pops up fine, but if there's a frozen program, not a chance. Right clicking the dock icon and clicking force quit works sometimes, not others (as often the whole system will freeze. Not a kernel panic, just non-responsive).

It's relatively stable at the moment, so I think I will wait until Lion is released, and do a clean install of that, then copy over my important files.

Thanks for the help guys

 

[BileGhost]

Thought I'd post an update.

I created a new user account, and transferred everything over. I still had stability problems. I then reinstalled Mac OS. I didn't remove anything before doing this, I just stuck in the disk and installed. It didn't destroy any of my files or user data which was a surprise to me. If I'd known that I would have done it earlier. The system because usable, but still unstable. I also installed NTFS-3G (the free one).

Since I had problems with the Mac NTFS writing driver, I've simply avoided using it. If I need to transfer a file to my bootcamp drive, I boot to Windows first, then copy the file over from the Mac drive. If I need to transfer a file from Windows to Mac, I boot into Mac, then open up the bootcamp drive and copy it over. That way I hope to avoid using the writing drivers.

These days, it's become pretty damn stable. Programs almost never freeze or crash, and it's generally a much more pleasant environment to use.

I'm still planning on upgrading to Lion, and I'm especially keen because I get my iTunes credit at 25% off, so it's gonna be cheaper than cheap .

Thanks to all you guys for the suggestions. It's always appreciated .