Time Machine Launch Services Bad Alias crashes

[Growler]

Hi,

Beginning 10-12-2011, Programs stop responding. Cannot quit or force quit programs from dock or from Activity Monitor. Am able to close most windows. Cannot restart using keyboard shortcuts, cannot use Terminal SUDO command since Terminal unresponsive when this happens. Got pop up WIndow saying “Finder closed” with options; OK, Report or Restart Finder.
I was unable to get any of the options to work nor was I able to move that window or close it. Apple Menu & desktop shortcuts were gone.

I end up having to manually force shut down using power button.

Repair permissions, Verify Disc OK, SMARTReporter v. 2.7.0 shows no problem with Disk.

Got Time Machine Pop up message Back up HD is Full & TM had to delete oldest back up.

Sometimes, if I do it fast enough when problem starts, Cntrl-Cmd-Eject will restart Mac.

Console logs show HUGE number of “LaunchServices: bad alias...” entries!

Example:
10/12/11 12:29:49 PM com.apple.backupd[362] LaunchServices: bad alias at 0x104af30e8, size 67, CSStore size 786437


Next day I turned off Time Machine (TM) automatic backups. No problems. Proves TM is the issue! Probably related to when the XHD filled up & TM started deleting oldest backup.

Do I need to:

Rebuild the Launch Services database?
Reset Launch Services?
Trash the Launch Services plist file under preferences?
Have 2:
com.apple.LaunchServices.plist (4KB)
com.apple.LaunchServices.QuarantineEvents (303KB)

I cleared the Cache & History in both Safari & Firefox just in case.

I checked Console Crash Reports & see both a Dock & a Finder crash report from one of the times I had the problems. That can’t be good.


I installed AppleJack & may use it to clear all my Caches depending on what replies I get here.


TM is supposed to only back up any CHANGES since the last backup & is designed to delete oldest backups if too full. So why the problems?

On 10-14-2011,

I verified disk on my TM XHD, it is OK.
I did a full reset of TM
as detailed here:
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/A4.html


I also trashed

com.apple.LaunchServices.plist
com.apple.LaunchServices.QuarantineEvents

Now TM hangs when backing up! And when it backs up it caused the usual major problems & I must force a restart. Currently, I have TM off or I cannot use my Mac.


Thanks for any help.

My System:
iMac 24, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 4 GB RAM, LaCie d2 Quadra 500 GB HDD (Win XP Pro-Boot Camp)

 

[Growler]

Solution:

Rebuild LauchServices Database. This command works for OS X 10.6.8.

sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

After enter the command in Terminal with the correct spacing (which may not look correct in this forum) you are prompted for your Admin pw which does not appear in Terminal as you type it.

Then hit enter again & should get:



“ThrottleProcessIO: throttling disc i/o”

Ran manual TM backup, no crash, let it do 2 more hourly backups, no crashes.