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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Macos X Reinstall

tomwright - May 29, 2005 - 4:05 am

After reinstalling MacOS X without cleaning disk, will all existing applications remain available and correctly functioning?.

vinko - May 29, 2005 - 4:39 am

Dear Tom,

My name is Vinko and I will attempt to answer your question.

If you want to retain your "existing applications", preferences, network settings and User accounts, you should perform an "Archive and Install".

Although, depending on the application in question it may still needs to be reinstalled, due to changes in the OS or applications settings/preferences that are not recognized by Apple's Installer.

I hope this helps.

-- Vinko

Thank you for choosing macosx.com

tomwright - May 29, 2005 - 6:25 am

Many thanks Vinko for your kind reply. The reason for my call was that the Mac Help function has mysteriously ceased to function, possibly as a result of defragging a disk (which appeared to be successful).

Best Regards and Thanks Again,

Tom

vinko - May 29, 2005 - 11:29 am

Dear Tom,

Thank you for your reply.

Your "Mac OS Help" problem should not have anything to do with defragmenting your disk.

BTW: how did you defragment your disk? What tool did you use? You do realize that Mac OS does not require frequent defragmentation, unless you constantly install 3rd party utilities and applications.

Do you still have the following file within the Help folder inside your root level Library folder?
/Library/Documentation/Help/MacHelp.help

By "root" I mean the Library folder at the top level of your Hard Drive rather than the one inside your Home directory.

I hope this helps.

-- Vinko

Thank you for choosing macosx.com

tomwright - May 29, 2005 - 1:29 pm

Hi Vinko,

Again many thanks for your kind reply. I am from the Windows world where defragging is always necessary to ensure tip-top performance and naturally assumed that this would also be the case with MacOs X. I was surprised to find that there were not many tools to do the defrag operation. I tried first with Disk Warrior. This reported a fragmentation level of 27% which was worrying, but when I did the defrag operation it refused to write back the new directory saying that a MacOS X service was preventing it. I tried again after disabling journalling with the same result. I also ran Disk Warrior from an external drive again with the same result. In the end I used iDefrag, which appears to have worked, although Disk Warrior still reports the disk as being 27% fragmented.

The answer to your other question is Yes MacHelp.help is in that directory.

I am currently creating an image of my main disk so that I will be able to restore it if my reinstall of MacOS X fails when I get round to doing it.

Best Regards and Many thanks again,

Tom

tomwright - May 29, 2005 - 2:03 pm

Hi Vinko,

I now have a disk image of my main dsk which I could always restore (from an external, bootable Firewire drive) in an emergency. Regarding the Machelp.help file you mentioned, it is there and I have created an alias to it on my desktop, which allows me to access it easily, if/when necessary. I cannot understand why accessing MacHelp from the Help menu on the desktop no longer works. When I use this, the iMac starts to dial up (sometimes) but never produces the MacHelp menu.

BTW what tools do you use for Backup/Restore?. I understand that you do not defrag, but consider that to be unnecessary.

Best Regards, and Thank for your kind assistance.

Tom

vinko - May 30, 2005 - 4:13 am

Dear Tom,

Thank you for your reply.

Actually DiskWarrior function is to recreate the Directory Map of your hard drive in question, which in doing so will result in removing fragmentation. Although I do not remember DiskWarrior having any statistics in its report that refer to percentage fragmentation. Anyway it does not matter.

Defragmentation is not unecessary task, it is just that Mac OS X is based on Unix and it already have automatic jobs that runs to help with this issue. This is the case for all Unix based systems. Although, having said that these jobs (scripts) are set to run between 03:00 - 04:00 (your Mac local time), so if you frequently leave your Mac off each night, these jobs will not be executed.

Speaking of which, I have not turned off my Mac for the past 4 years except when I go on extended holidays of more than 2 days. As in all Unix systems, they normally runs forever without rebooting unless there is a major upgrade which requires rebooting.

Retrospect is a good program for backing up your Mac, if you want to do incremental backups and NOT simply duplicate your entire hard drive on to another hard drive of equal or greater capacity.

If the latter is what you're looking for the free utility "Carbon Copy Cloner" or alike will do the job fine.

I personally use Apple's Backup application, which is part of Apple's .Mac subscription. It also does incremental backups plus backups/restore to/from .Mac, another hard drive or CDs/DVDs.

I hope this helps.

-- Vinko

Thank you for choosing macosx.com

tomwright - May 30, 2005 - 5:04 am

Many thanks again for your comprehensive reply Vinko. I am a much wiser man now than I was yesterday. I will not re-install MacOs X just now, but I have downloaded Carbon Copy Cloner and will experiment with how it can help me. I am very pleased with my new iMac but still a bit in awe of it and also a bit nervous as I know so litlle of the detail, which someone like yourself has at their fingertips.

Many thanks for all of your time and your very helpful replies to my requests for information.

Best Regards

Tom Wright

vinko - May 31, 2005 - 1:57 am

Dear Tom,

Thank you for your reply. You are very welcome.

In time you will find that the majority of the Mac community is very friendly and helpful. I always believe in what goes around comes around.

Talk to you soon.

-- Vinko

Thank you for choosing macosx.com