Hey all, recently I've been having this issue with my 2011 iMac where from time to time it will do a hard freeze with a gray screen telling me to hold the power button to restart. It happens under Lion but when I am on boot camp Win7, it will never ever freeze up.
I've checked system info to see if the memory was bad. Nope. I've done PRAM reset. Didn't help. I've also done hardware diagnostic before and that did help, but the freezes have been comingback recently hence why I'm making this post.
Sadly I don't recall the freezes happening as often under Snow Leopard - so I don't think it's a hardware problem.
Now I think Lion has the install files hidden somewhere when I boot with option key held down..... But a couple things I need advice from you guys before I begin.
1) I've had my setup the way it's been since 2006 and I've always just used migration assistant to setup new macs to transfer my settings and files over.... Do u think it's time for a fresh install?
2) I have a NAS, and a TM backup on the time capsule, I fear that a fresh install will prevent me from having priviledges in accessing (read/write) the NAS and my current TM... Is there a way to prevent this? How do I proceed? I have about 6 TB of data and I would be a really sad panda if I could no longer access them.
3) I assume if I used migration assistant to transfer my settings and files from the TM during install, that it would render the fresh install pointless. Is this true? If yes, should I just transfer the apps/documents over using migration assistant or should I do it manually (which I don't think is possible if #2 doesn't work out well)?
4) What about iCal,Mail, iPhoto, iMovie, and iTunes? These are very important. How do I make sure they get to the new install safely?
Thanks guys. The advice is much appreciated since you all are pretty much Mac veterans here.
I've checked system info to see if the memory was bad. Nope. I've done PRAM reset. Didn't help. I've also done hardware diagnostic before and that did help, but the freezes have been comingback recently hence why I'm making this post.
Sadly I don't recall the freezes happening as often under Snow Leopard - so I don't think it's a hardware problem.
Now I think Lion has the install files hidden somewhere when I boot with option key held down..... But a couple things I need advice from you guys before I begin.
1) I've had my setup the way it's been since 2006 and I've always just used migration assistant to setup new macs to transfer my settings and files over.... Do u think it's time for a fresh install?
2) I have a NAS, and a TM backup on the time capsule, I fear that a fresh install will prevent me from having priviledges in accessing (read/write) the NAS and my current TM... Is there a way to prevent this? How do I proceed? I have about 6 TB of data and I would be a really sad panda if I could no longer access them.
3) I assume if I used migration assistant to transfer my settings and files from the TM during install, that it would render the fresh install pointless. Is this true? If yes, should I just transfer the apps/documents over using migration assistant or should I do it manually (which I don't think is possible if #2 doesn't work out well)?
4) What about iCal,Mail, iPhoto, iMovie, and iTunes? These are very important. How do I make sure they get to the new install safely?
Thanks guys. The advice is much appreciated since you all are pretty much Mac veterans here.