missing my dad - need some Mac help!

[pauline]

A very BIG thankyou to you all for the lessons......will let you know if i am cured.

[kimmer]

Way cool, Pauline. Hope this cures the problem.

[Xairbusdriver]

OK! You're doing great! You'll be an expert in no time!

The five steps above should be no problem, either. It should take care of the failures to both drives/disks.

It may also explain the discrepancies in the reports that one drive could not be unmounted and was also available for repair. The only drive you have that could have reported that pair of remarks would have been the Maxtor 80GB when you were booted from the Macintosh 80GB drive. OR the Macintosh 80GB drive IF you had startup up from that external Maxtor drive.

So, first, lets' determine exactly what drive is being used during startup. Open your System Preferences. Look under the "Apple" menu, the fourth item from the top should be "System Preferences..." (BTW, and menu item with "..." at the end means you should see a window requesting additional info before anything is actually done.) When the System Prefs window opens, look for one that says "Startup Disk." You'll probably see two icons, the one on the left most end is the one that is being used to startup the computer. Its label will also tell you the version of OS X it will be using.

Please report what drive is being used for startup.

Now, back to the "failure to unmount" problem. If that was truly the Macintosh 80GB drive, it means you must have started up on the Maxtor drive. Otherwise, the 'Repair" button would not have been available. You can never "Repair" the drive you are running off of (booted from. starting up from). I suspect that the "Macintosh 80GB" drive could not be unmounted because something on that drive was/is being used while you are running Disk Utility. It could even be Disk Utility itself!

The 'trick' is to be sure you are not using anything on any disk you are trying to 'repair.' One way to do that is to startup in "Safe Mode." It is even simpler than the method offered by Sandbox. Simply hold the "shift" key down and press the power button to start up (or use the Restart menu and hold the "shift" key down as soon as possible). Keep the key pressed until you see the words "Safe Boot" on a screen. When running in this mode, you will lose a few things like the DVD player and such, but we're not trying to trouble-shoot anything that won't work while running this way. You will also be running absolutely nothing except Apple's applications. Hopefully, this will stop the use of any app that might be running on the other disk (no matter which disk won't unmount) and allow a 'normal' "Repair Disk" operation. We'll worry about what that app might be later. The point is, try starting up in Safe Mode from both drives and then see if Disk Utility works normally on the other drive during a 'repair.'

Please report back on particular problems and when/where they occurred.

As an aside, you might consider renaming your two drives just a little. While it is handy to know from the name what their capacity might be, there will always be less than that available. So it might be less confusing to have quite dissimilar names for the two. As it is now, the only difference is a few letters... More on that later!

Keep up the great work! And congratulations on the screen shots and uploading them here! Some 'old-timers' are still a little less than expert when it comes to handling both those tasks in the same week!

[krissel]

Hi Pauline, welcome to TS!

You've received great advice from everyone but I'd like to clarify a couple things for you.

First of all you have two drives (hard disks) in that machine. One is named Macintosh and the other Maxtor and it would be a good idea, as ABD said, to give them names. You can do that easily by going to the desktop (that picture you see behind all the open windows) and looking for their little icons, usually in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Here is what a generic icon of a hard drive looks like in Leopard (not sure if it is different in Tiger):

[attachment=1363:4.jpg]

Note that I've given it a name which helps me identify what it is. All you need to do is click on the icon once, then slow click/hold on the name. The text will highlight and at that point allow you to type in whatever you wish. Don't use a slash in the name or other odd character to prevent any problems in the future. Dashes are OK, also don't ever start the name of anything with a period. The system will warn you but if you go ahead and do it the item will become invisible. Otherwise you can call the disk anything you wish.

Your Maxtor drive is the one you are starting up from according to the info you have posted. You can see the contents of the drives and find the available space on each easily by opening up a Finder window. You can do it as Paddy suggested by going to Finder, new window, or by double clicking either hard drive icon or by clicking on the Mac smily face on the far left of the dock (bottom of screen).

If you do the latter you will get a window that opens up to your "home directory". That is where personal preferences and documents are kept. Here is what I get when I click on my Mac face. Note that I'm using Leopard which has a slightly different looking window from the Tiger one.

[attachment=1364:7.jpg]

If I then click on the top listed drive (XL-MAX in my case), I then see the contents of that particular drive. At the very bottom of the window frame is the available space on that drive.

[attachment=1365:xl.jpg]

Now if I click on the second drive on the left I get the contents of that drive.

[attachment=1366:storage.jpg]

I actually have 3 drives and each is partitioned so I could have about 10 listed in the left side of that window but I 'unmount' the drives that I don't think I'll be needing to save the power supply and keep things cooler in the case. I can mount them as needed. When a drive is unmounted it is not available to the system or user and basically is in a 'resting' mode.


If you go into System Preferences and go to Startup Disk as ABD suggests, it will show you if there is a viable operating system on the other drive. All systems that are usable for startup will be listed in that window. Wait till the little gear stops spinning to see them all. You may also have System 9.2 on that machine for Classic applications but that is another story.

Having two drives or partitions with operating systems is great for troubleshooting problems. But it looks like Sandbox's advice may have cured your initial freezing problem.  Still the space you reported having free earlier was on the non-startup drive so please check out the Maxtor drive and let us know how much space you have available there as well.

OH, and it looks like you have two DVD drives in that computer. Wow.

Don't get discouraged. So far you're doing great!  

[pauline]

[attachment=1367:Picture_2.png] this is the start up disc.  should i proceed with your instruction. i thought i had rectified the problem yesterday after the discs were verified.....or am i dealing with another problem?

[pauline]

[attachment=1370:Picture_4.png] these are the screen shots of both drives, is that any help pauline

[krissel]

No, you don't have any problem. Didn't mean to suggest you did, only trying to give you more ways to access information that may be useful in the future.

The first image of the startup disks shows you are booting from the Maxtor drive which is running Tiger (10.4.11).  The second operating system in that window is on the 'Macintosh' drive which is running Panther (10.3.9) the system that preceded Tiger. You also see OS 9 which is used to run older applications that only run on the much earlier system. Most likely you may never use it. Leopard (10.5.6) is the latest system. Your machine is capable of running it but Tiger will probably be fine for now.

In the future if you have trouble booting into the Maxtor drive you will have the other drive as an option to use to start up the computer. Of course it is an older system so it won't have quite as many bells and whistles but it works pretty well.

The two other screen shots show that the Maxtor drive is obviously being used to keep most of the documents. Eventually you may want to create some folders and organize some of the documents. But again, most important for now is to get used to using the Mac and feeling comfortable with it.

You're doing great.  

[Highmac]

I think Kris and XABD are just trying to help with future troubleshooting. Is your Mac behaving now?

Nice to see you'd relaxed enough to post in the humour thread.

Edit: Kris beat me to it....

[sandbox]

Pauline, I can't say that your cured, but it's a step in the right direction.

Because you have this issue going on in Word and possibly other OFF-Line applications it is most likely a problem with memory. You may have too many applications running or starting up on boot-up. Something is causing the beach ball to spin, an indication that the computer is busy. If the computer cannot write to the memory (ram) it will seek out a place on the hard drive. If the bitmap is squirrelly then it may not have been able to find a place to write. Now that the bitmap is fixed that may solve your problems, but, one question remains…and that is…what is the computer doing in the background that is occupying the memory and or the processor?

To address this question I would need to know what other programs are running when it freezes. OR what items do you have starting up automatically when you bootup the Mac.

To find the Startup Items> goto the top menu click the >Apple then >System Preferences > accounts>and then startup items. This will tell you what is automatically starting up with your computer, which in turn will explain how much memory (ram) is in demand.

When using Word it is set to save your work every 5 minutes by default unless you change the preference. Browsers save cache files, email request new mail, weather programs send and receive a constant data stream, as do clock programs and computer temperature programs. All these little programs and more running in the background are sent to memory first and then to the hard drive for save keeping, if something else is demanding processor time or memory space when Word wants to save your work then the beach ball will pop up indicating that something is waiting for attention.

Find any unnecessary programs running in the background and turn them off. Look inside the startup Items list to see if something is starting up automatically that you don't use and turn it off. That would be my second recommendation in resolving the beach ball problem.

Good luck

[pauline]

[attachment=1373:Picture_1.png]
can't find the start up in accounts but found login items, is this the same ?

[Xairbusdriver]

You're in the correct place. We (I, anyway) often use both "Startup" and "Login" as meaning the same, and practically speaking they are, but the tab does say "Login Items."

Anyway, Most everyone needs the "iTunesHelper" item. If you are using a Microsoft mouse, you probably need that next one. "MagicMenu" is a well-like helper app, but you might want to check the developers web site to be sure you have the latest version for Tiger. Not sure what "Archive Assistant Scheduler is, but I suspect it's another non-Apple app which may need updating, also. The "Stuffit..." app may be involved with that scheduler app, but it may just be something your Dad installed since Tiger still used Stuffit for compressing/uncompressing files. "Adobe" apps are prone to problems mainly because of their usually massive sizes and multiple components scattered all over the drive(s). "CNQL2405_ButtonManager" looks like an "extension" used in OS 9. You'll probably need it only if you ever use that OS.

Although I don't use "Messenger," is that not the email portion of MS Office? If so, it seems a logical choice of items to remove from that list. If it is just one of the programs in a Microsoft Office collection, I don't see any reason to have it automatically open and run all the time. If it's just an email program, it will always be available manually anytime you want it, anyway. There are ways to make hat easier that we can discuss later.

Actually, I'm concerned that the list has no icons nor "Kind" labels for many of those items. That may very well indicate that they don't even exist on either drive, any longer. Whether that could cause problems I would doubt, but it might make Startups slower as the OS tries to find things that don't exist.

Wait for some confirmation from others about what to do with those Login items, I'm just stating my opinions, since I don't have or use most of those things.

And congrats on your ability to find, capture and upload screens showing the answers to all the questions we seem to be bombarding you with! Thanks for your patience!

BTW, if you hear from your Dad, tell him there will be a conference call awaiting his return and he will have some definite explaining to do for leaving his Daughter in such a 'lurch!' The "Royal Parental Police Society" may also have some questions for him!

[pauline]

i am quite pleased he left me in the lurch, or i wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet such a decent group of people and learn so much. does that sound cheesy.. it's not meant to. but please let me know when you are going to interrogate him so i can watch him squirm! gets back late on may 7th. pauline

[krissel]

Hi Pauline,

I think you are one of the fastest learners we've encountered.  

As to the login items:

iTunes helper= OK
Microsoft Mouse=OK if you're using one

MagicMenu=dump it - click on its name to highlight it, then click the minus symbol at the bottom of the list. Oh, I see the item window is locked. You will have to click on the lock at the bottom of the window and then provide your admin password to be allowed to make changes.
 It is part of the Adobe Stuffit install and supposedly adds some features to the control-click options but it can be problematic and not useful for the most part. The Mac OS has most of its capability built in.

Archive Assistant Schedular
Stuffit AVRDaemon
AdobeResourceSynchronizer

None of these are needed and have caused numerous lockups and slowdowns on peoples' systems.
Unfortunately getting rid of them is not always easy. The Synchronizer may reappear even if you remove it from the login items. Adobe has the attitude that it knows what you should have and insists on giving it to you.

(I've included a bunch of links below so you can read about other's experiences with these annoyances.)

CNQL2405ButtonManager is part of a Canon scanner's install. It is only necessary if you are going to use the fast scan buttons on the scanner exterior. Most people use the software that comes with the scanner to control the aspects of a scan. You can remove this and still be able to use the scanner, just not all the fast-scan buttons on the case.

MSN Messenger is for online chatting. Up to you but there are other ways to do this so it isn't needed.

Don't feel you have to read all of these links but they will give you a sense of some problems others have encountered and what they tried.

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/331009...anager-powerpc/
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=598530
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8949317
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=110723
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?m...31&tstart=0
http://blogs.adobe.com/barnaby.james/2006/...be_synch_1.html
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/286450

Happy reading!  

[pauline]

[attachment=1376:Picture_2.png] ok all tidied up. i left the mouse helper as i am using a microsoft mouse at present. the msn i inherited from my son, he used to chat to his friends but he has his own pc now  and the canon scanner went ages ago. thanks pauline

[sandbox]

OK,
last thing
goto> menu>GO>Utilities>Activity Monitor> then click each option to view what is active.
On the lower bar>Click on CPU and then >click on the %cpu option on top (what it the % idle Minimum variable below?)
On the lower bar>Click on System Memory and then> Real Memory on the top bar. (what is the % of free memory?)

These number will move and grow larger as you open move applications. They are a guide to let you know how many applications you can comfortably run at one time with the memory (ram) that you have installed.