Crashed and set to default, and weird apps In launchpad. Help!

[TianaCorri]

I was editing an image in pixelmator and my computer froze and shut down. I had iPhoto, iTunes, and safari open as well. When I got my computer to start back up everything was set to default, but it looks like nothing has been deleted. I have all my images and documents and music. I opened up launchpad to start putting apps back on my dock and found pages and pages of apps/script things I have never seen before. (see image below) It won't let me delete them or drag them to the trash.

My mac has been running sort of slow, freezing and shutting down while running iMovie, pixelmator and iPhoto. I decided to try and clean it up, a site said to delete the files out of my preferences folder, I did that about an hour before my computer reset itself. Could this be why? Is there a way to clean up my launchpad and get rid of those stubborn app/script things?



Thanks!

[Doctor X]

My mac has been running sort of slow, freezing and shutting down while running iMovie, pixelmator and iPhoto. I decided to try and clean it up, a site said to delete the files out of my preferences folder, I did that about an hour before my computer reset itself. Could this be why? Is there a way to clean up my launchpad and get rid of those stubborn app/script things?

DING!DING!DING!DING!

The Preference Files contain, amongst other things, your "settings." You basically forced restarted your computer. Sure, individual files can become corrupted--like Firefox--and trashing one can fix things. Restarting the application creates a new file.

Depending on your Mac--its RAM, processor, free space on HD, whether you sacrificed a virgin to it, et cetera--the programs you describe can run "slow."

However, it reads like you do not do maintenance on your computer. You also do not back up your computer. This is why we cannot have nice things

So what should you do? How to make things run better?

The Good Doctor's Guide to Salvation

I. Take Your Money:

II. Send it to me [Stop that!--Ed.]

Right, sorry, take about $50-150 and get a large External Hard Drive if you do not already have one.

II. Obtain a Cloning Program:

I use SuperDuper!--but many HERE recommend the free Carbon Copy Cloner? Why? Time Machine does not make a bootable clone. So you basically have to restore your system, then recover, and all of that. With a CLONED back up you simply hook it up, boot holding the Option key--the one with the greasy fingerprint--and choose your Ext-HD. You can THEN work on fixing your primary drive or simply "go back" to the last time you cloned.

HAD you done this----BEFORE playing around with your computer, you could have booted off the clone back to where you were and come HERE to complain whilst SD/CCC changes your primary drive back--simply copies your cloned back-up.

This makes life SO much easier. So many problems--including the Communist infiltration of Schennectady--can be solves simply by cloning your drive.

But you are not done . . . no

III. Make Sure You Have Your Installation Disks/Disk Warrior/Something-Something:

Let us assume you removed a critical file in your cleaning--I have done it one of the reasons I am HERE --and you did NOT clone your drive What do you do? Give up? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

No! But you need to boot from something. Your Int-Disk which came with your computer--unless, like many, you bought it from the Toothless Man behind the bar--has Disk Aid. You need to boot from something other than the primary drive. Then run Disk Aid which may fix things. I pontificate upon that in a How To thread in that section you can read at your leisure or if you need an insomnia cure. That is more for you in the future since things can go "wrong" for other reasons.

IV. Get a Maintenance Program:

Technically, once a day, the Mac runs its own scripts. Gurus can give you the details, but basically things like cache files can accumulate. For most, running a program "cleans" things as best as you can. From a previous life I got Cocktail--an inexpensive program I like because you can tailor it to run the Daily, Weekly, and Monthy scripts as well as clear out crap such as caches and the like.

However, there is also Onyx which is free and quite good. That should do the trick. Gurus will then recommend let the computer shut down--Onyx will ask for this by default--reboot then when finishes with the rebooting, shut down and reboot again to rebuild your Shut-Down and Start-Up caches.

V. RAM!!1!!

We do not know your computer. Do you know your computer? Anyways, more RAM always helps. It is a cheap solution. Put it this way: my Might MacBook of Doom--FEAR ME!!!--came with 1 or 2 GB--I forget. Now I want to work on film or some other huge file while surfing video sites, while listening to iTunes . . . SLAM shut goes the computer. Not enough RAM. Going to 4 or in my case 8 solves that problem. Wise investment.

VI. HD Size?

A Guru may correct me, but you really want about 20-30% of your HD free. It is hard for application to move things around if there is no room--especially true with large files like video. So if you have a nearly full HD, what is it full of? If it is full of iTunes files, and you do not need them on your computer all of the time--say it is a desk top--then you can put them on said External HD and still run your computer off of its primary drive. A lot of people with laptops will do this for music they really only listen to "at home." Same with picture and video files you do not need to have on your computer all of the time--put them on External HD/back them up by burning a Dual Sided DVD.

Or you can consider getting a bigger primary drive. It depends on your computer.

--J.D.

[TianaCorri]

THANK YOU! Tough love, but thanks. Sounds like I have a lot of work to do. I am a mac noob, I don't intend to be so naive.

Thanks again, my computer thanks you too. I am going to go get started now...

[Doctor X]

No problem! Remember, EVERYONE had to start someplace. As I suggested, I ended up HERE after doing something REALLY stupid.

If you are totally new to computing, consider getting one of the Missing Manual series for your current OS. Will help you sort through a lot of things.

--J.D.