Finder troubles

Randman

Randman

HA! HA! HA!
Hi, having a heck of a headache with my IceBook. Earlier tonight, I hooked up my external hard drive (Maxtor).
I hadn't had any problems with the Book and had even discussed selling it to a friend who wanted a spare laptop because I was interested in upgrading to a PB.
Anyway, I wanted to trash a number of files on the external so I could carbon copy my IceBook over, in case I do sell it off.
I also wanted to do a fresh carbon of my iPod as I was going to use one of the new readers that allow audible and Music Store files to be copied back to the hard drive.
I trashed about 10 gig of files from the external just fine. Then I tried to trash a copy of a freeverse game (still in the trial mode) and I got a screen saying I had to restart my computer. I'm taking it this to be a serious kernal panic, but not sure. I've never had a screen like that come up before.
Anyway, I restart and go back in. I went to see if any files were locked and they weren't. I tried to trash again and same screen.
Log back in and this time my desktop is fragged. Hard drive icon isn't showing. No menu bar, dock looks reverted to new mode and ? ? ? for most of the apps.
I'm able to go into system prefs and even was able to open safari, but that's about it. Nothing on the Finder and I can't get into Utilities to run any first aid.
The desktop pattern is still there, system prefs don't appear to have changed, even bookmarks and history was intact.
I'm typing this now off my clamshell. I can connect to the IceBook via ethernet connection and looking around, it seems that everything's there. I was able to get into and out of the external hard drive just fine from the clamshell as well.
Is there a way I can run a disk utility from the clamshell having the two hooked up? Or is there some way I can rebuild the desktop on the IceBook from the clamshell. Thanks in advance for any and all assistance.
 
Have you tried booting from CD and then running Disk Utility (repair permissions etc.)?
 
It sounds like you ran into a kernel panic when you tried to remove the Freeverse game. If there's something else you'd like to remove, try using the UNIX command (in Terminal) "rm." Enter "man rm" and read about it, then use it to remove stuff.

Try Cat's suggestions, then archive & reinstall your old system using the Archive & Install option in the OS X installer. This will put a fresh system on your computer while keeping your old system intact, for posterity (or if you need anything from it). This should bypass the kernel panic and the Finder glitches you encountered.
 
Thanks, I'm giving it a try right now. First time anything like has ever happened (knock on graphite). That's one game I won't purchase!
 
Ok, I did the reinstall with Archive option. The original dock is back, but I still can't get into the Finder or any of the hard drive folders (such as Disk Utility). I'm currently installing the os x update combined but I'm not sure that'll do the trick.
Could the Finder prefs have been corrupted? How would I fix those if I can't run Disk Utility. I'm getting worried. I'm even mulling trying to salvage what I can via ethernet then reinstall fresh. I have a BackUp from .Mac, but such a pain just trying to trash a folder.
And I try to keep the system running pretty smoothly using apps like Cocktail.
Any last suggestions before I go the exteme route?
 
Diskwarrior? (boot from cd)

While you're at it, have it fix your Firewire drive too.

Doug
 
i've always found the following procedures very helpful in cases like this:

1. fsck: reboot your mac and press apple+s while the machine is booting -- this should boot your machine in single-user mode, a simple black screen with white text -- as soons as you get a prompt, type "fsck -y" (notice the space between fsck and y) -- this command does more or less the same than Apple's Disk Utility, but it saves you the hassle of rebooting from your OS X cd -- in most of cases, this command will find quite a few problems -- if your file system and directory aren't too corrupted, it will also fix them -- keep repeating this command untill you get an "your system seems to be ok" type of respone -- if, however, fsck keeps finding problems after three or four attempts, it will not be able to fix them --
2. the next step would be Techtool or even better DiskWarrior -- (DO skip booting from your Install cd since Disk Utility does the same than fsck) -- these programs cost a bit of money, but any self-respecting mac user who has ever run into problems, will have them (and who hasn't) -- and you can trust me, having a 80 GB firewire drive crash on you unexpectedly, is a nightmare -- for days i was unable to restore or recover my data -- right when i was ready to simply reformat the whole thing, someone suggested DiskWarrior to me and in a couple of hours, it restored my entire drive, relocating all 80 GB of data on it --


I know this might sound as a ad for DiskWarrior, but hey, the thing works....
 
More of a testimonial than an endorsement.

Any advice for a drive that appears to be broken? As in it won't spin up?
 
well, if it really appears to be broken (hardware level), then the only advice i have is a hope, i.e. that the disk is still under warranty -- had that happen as well and lacie simply replaced it without asking questions....
 
Yeah, couldn't get a point where I could run DiskWarrior on it. In fact, it took more than a couple of tries to get it to eject the CD player (it went to a restart each time I hit the eject button).
I don't think it was the FireWire because I had no problem using my Graphite clamshell (a valuable back-up) to connect (ethernet) to the IceBook hard drive, or my iPod and the externa drive.
I went ahead and did a clean reinstall, then went back to upgrade everything.
I had a Carbon Copy on the external, but I've decided not to reinstall that in case there's something still wacky out there, and I'm still in talks about selling it (though now I informed the guy and am going to run it through pretty thorough for a few weeks to make sure it's nothing that'll require servicing as soon as he pays for it).
I had back-ups of everything important, so I didn't lose anything except time and sleep on it.
I haven't done it yet, but I have iClean and I'll use it's Secure Delete to wipe that game off the external in case something on it was the bugger, which is the only thing I can figure caused the kernel cuz that that was really about the only thing that I hadn't done before.
I'm going to give it a few days and see if anything develops. If not, over the weekend, I may try and see if I can re-introduce the kernal so at least I know what caused it and to avoid doing it again.
I did a fresh Carbon Copy, so at least I'll save some time on that end.
 
The La Cie is an old 8 GB SCSI drive that my dad got from his friend, so it has no shred of a warranty left.

Randman: You seem to have been getting mixed signals from your keyboard. Is the eject button on your keyboard? If so, then the computer thought you were trying to restart because Cmd-Ctrl-Eject is the Restart function, instead of the power key, and somewhere wires were crossing. But it's good to know that it's back to normal now, for the most part.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top