iBook G4 10.4.9 behaving weird; DiskWarrior or Reinstall Tiger?

LABachlr

LABachlr

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My sister's iBook G4 is behaving weird.

- It's slow sometimes
- In Disk Utility, when I was looking up partitioning a HD in the help section, when I clicked on a link to another help page, it would not go to it. Then, when I did another search in the help section for "partition", it said that it could not find it, even though it had just found it a few minutes earlier, and "partition" was spelled correctly.
- Sometimes it freezes where you can't do anything and you have to reboot
- When using Yahoo Widgets, when I was trying to resize the image of the Picture Frame widget, it would not take the change, and would not cancel out of the widget preferences dialog box.

Those are just some of the things that I noticed from using it for a little bit, and from what my sister has told me.

Would DiskWarrior fix these issues, or should I do a reinstall of the OS? Or is there something else I can do?

If a reinstall is suggested, which type of install, "archive and install"? I don't want to have to go through the process of manually backing up and restoring the email, settings, etc.
 
Dump Disk Warrior; you don't need it.

First, repair permissions: Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/Repair Permissions then restart your computer.

Then if that doesn't do it, put your Install Disc 1 OS X System disk (came with your computer) into your dvd drive and restart while holding the 'c' key down till you see the desktop reappear. Don't let go till you do.

Don't reinstall OS X. What you want to do is go to File/Open Disk Utility so you can 'repair disk'. When you do it from the cd you allow the entire system to be updated/repaired rather than just the non-system files when you repair permissions when booted normally.

Regular repairing permissions is good maintenance and will help your computer run more smoothly if done on a regular basis.

Reinstalling OS X is definitely a last resort in this case and I'd only do it if your system just won't boot up or some other serious issue like that.
 
How much empty space do you have on that computer? If it's less than 15 % of total space, that can also be a cause for the problems you are experiencing.
 
She does repair the permissions quite often. But I will try repairing the disk next. Thanks.

And there is 16% of the HD free (4.5GB out of 28GB).

Btw, I just tried to backup the HD with SuperDuper! and it failed to copy all of the files. I have attached the log. If you have any suggestions, please...do tell.
 

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OK. Thanks. Will do.

I actually just ran DiskWarrior v4.0 via booting from the DW CD, and it came back with the following message:

--------
DiskWarrior has successfully built a new directory for the disk names "Macintosh HD." The new directory cannot replace the original directory because of a disk malfunction.

It is highly recommended that you backup all of your data from the preview disk. [How do I do that? I just backed up the home folder onto an external. Does that contain all of her data? And how do I put it back if I do a fresh install?]

All files and folder data was easily located.

Comparison of the original and replacement directories could not be performed because the original directory was too severely damaged. It is recommended that you preview the replacement directory.
-------------------

It tells me preview the directory, and then to go back to DiskWarrior and click "Replace" or "Cancel." Well, the "Replace" button is grayed out.

What do I do? Does the HD need replacing even though Mac OS X's Disk Utility said that nothing needed to be repaired on the HD?
 
Believe Diskwarior over Disk Utility. Diskwarrior is an excellent program. It looks like you need to get as much off your hard drive as you can. Maybe you already did that with SuperDuper. Then you need to take the machine to a repair facility and have the hard drive checked. Tell them what Diskwarrior reported.

Hard drives do fail sometimes. The older the drive, the more likely it will fail. (And BTW, repairing permissions is not the miracle cure some people make it out to be.)

Good luck with your data recovery.

t
 
Ok. Thanks. I was not able to copy anything with SuperDuper because of the error. So, I copied the Home folder to the external. That will have all of her data, including the desktop, right? And how will I put that data back once the computer is fixed, and most likely, there is a fresh install of the OS?

Also, I did a hardware diagnostic with the disk that came with the computer, both the quick and extended test, and they both said that the HD passed.

I did read somewhere that if a USB mouse is attached to the computer, then certain software will not work. I think it was the Apple Hardware Diagnostic that said that. Not sure. Could that also be the cause of the error with DiskWarrior?
 
You shouldn't have any problems with USB mice. Some people say to disconnect a Firewire hard drive when installing or upgrading the operating system.

Glad you fixed your problem.

t
 
I'm having a similar problem and I thought reinstalling my OS was the answer. I found this thread and thought I'd try it first.

Natobasso said:
Dump Disk Warrior; you don't need it.

First, repair permissions: Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/Repair Permissions then restart your computer.
Click to expand...

I did this.

Natobasso said:
Then if that doesn't do it, put your Install Disc 1 OS X System disk (came with your computer) into your dvd drive and restart while holding the 'c' key down till you see the desktop reappear. Don't let go till you do.

Don't reinstall OS X. What you want to do is go to File/Open Disk Utility so you can 'repair disk'. When you do it from the cd you allow the entire system to be updated/repaired rather than just the non-system files when you repair permissions when booted normally.
Click to expand...

This is where I have problems. My computer spits out the disk twice before the desktop shows. I can't do anything to keep the disk in... I don't understand what I could possibly be doing wrong. Once the desktop finally showed (I held "C" through all the spitting out and reinserting) I went to the Disk Utility and the "Repair Disk" option is grayed out...


Natobasso said:
Reinstalling OS X is definitely a last resort in this case and I'd only do it if your system just won't boot up or some other serious issue like that.
Click to expand...

I thought I would like to do this... but I can't even get it to start up from the disk... at all. It just spits it out. My computer guy says there is nothing wrong with my computer or the disk. It works just fine for him as does my Leopard disk... which I have never been able to install on this computer :(

I was dealing with all the little problems until recently when I bought Adobe Illustrator - It worked fine for about 4 days and then wouldn't work anymore. It would open and close immediately. I tried deleting it and installing again and the install asks for my password and then immediately closes.

Please please please help me! I have logos, business cards and brochures to make and I'm really behind on production! Ek!

Thank you!
 
Gillick,

You can go to System Preferences (from the Apple menu>System Preferences) and click "Startup Disk." Put the install DVD in the drive and select it as the startup disc and restart. It should boot from the disc. *Remember to change it back to your boot hard drive when you're done.*

Reinstalling the OS is a can potentially cause data loss, so make sure you have a backup of your important files. And reinstalling may not solve your problem. Have you first tried reinstalling Illustrator?

Good luck and let us know if you have further problems.

Bot

P.S. By the way, DiskWarrior is better than Disk Utility. Disk Utility sometimes runs into disk errors it can't fix, and it can sometimes even make problems worse. DiskWarrior (or TechTool Pro) are programs you buy that you may never need. But they can also save your bacon.
 
Last edited:
ex2bot said:
P.S. By the way, DiskWarrior is better than Disk Utility.
Click to expand...

I've heard DiskWarrior does more harm than good, and you don't need it as long as you have Disk Utility and OnyX. Disk Utility, and Repair Permissions, does a great job at keeping your mac running well. At least it has for me as long as OS X has been around.
 
ex2bot said:
Gillick,

You can go to System Preferences (from the Apple menu>System Preferences) and click "Startup Disk." Put the install DVD in the drive and select it as the startup disc and restart. It should boot from the disc. *Remember to change it back to your boot hard drive when you're done.*

Reinstalling the OS is a can potentially cause data loss, so make sure you have a backup of your important files. And reinstalling may not solve your problem. Have you first tried reinstalling Illustrator?
Click to expand...

Hi Bot,

I did this exactly, everything worked fine, until it told me to put in the second disk. It spins it and spits it out. I'm stuck on the "Please insert the "Mac OS X Install Disk 2" disk to continue".
The disk looks fine and worked last time I had to use it.
Please advise.

I backed everything up and I did try to reinstall Illustrator. It just opens and closes again.

Thank you so much
 
Natobasso,

I've seen Disk Utility give up and cry on a couple hard drives. DU, as you probably know, is a GUI face of fsck_hfs, which attempts to patch the drive's catalog file. Diskwarrior rebuilds (and therefore defrags) the catalog file. It can also check and repair the integrity of files and folders and repair permissions.

Whoever told you (or wrote) that DiskWarrior is no good was mistaken. It's consistently been rated highly by Mac experts (e.g., in Macworld, Mac|Life, etc.). Of course, no disk utility will be able to repair a hardware failure.

(And repairing permissions is not magic. It only checks permissions of certain files on the boot drive. It's not common for these permissions to be incorrect. Hasn't been that kind of problem since 10.1 or 10.2. But I don't want to get too much into that old debate.)

Bot
 
Gillick,

Have you tried deleting Illustrator's preferences file (.plist or whatever it uses)? Open the Library folder in your home folder (not the one in the root folder of the drive). Then open "Preferences" and look for com.adobe.illustrator.plist or alternatively use Spotlight to search for it. I don't know for sure that there is a com.adobe.illustrator.plist because I don't have Illustrator. Maybe someone else can tell you.

If deleting the .plist doesn't fix the problem, one thing to try that may get you working temporarily would be to use System Prefences>Accounts to create another administrator account and then try opening Illustrator from that account. If that works, it means there's something wrong with something in the other account. Of course, your Illustrator data files (your Illustrator documents) are probably saved in the home folder of your original user account.

If you want to get a bit geeky, you can run the app called Console (/Application/Utilities or use Spotlight to search for it). Click "All Messages" in the upper left corner of the window, and look for any error messages from Illustrator that might give us a clue as to what the problem is.

Good luck and sorry you're having trouble. Please leave another message to tell us what happened.

Bot
 
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