Yosemite issues

[Raven]

I posted here twice about upgrading from 10.6.8 to 10.10.3. As a graphic designer living in an isolated area of Northern Canada, I held back for so long to find a way to use my Freehand vector files.
Thanks for all the previous good TS advice from jchuzi, paddy, and Xairbusdriver!!!

Now I have a few more questions.

 I was using an EHD (#1) with Super Duper cloner, and I kept it that way in order to retain OS10.6.8 with 100s of my Freehand logo and graphic vector files that won’t open in 10.10.  That was a scary thought to not be able to open them.

So when I upgraded to 10.10, I had purchased a new Seagate 3 TB EHD (#2). Tried to back up all my files first. Wouldn’t work after a few frustrating days and many suggestions from TS. Thanks again!
So, I returned the unit to Seagate in California. A new one was sent to me within 14 days to Canada. No questions asked. I was impressed!  I now have 2 EHD units.

I then backed everything up to the new EHD#2 and it finally worked. BUT, it was so slooooow! It took a full week 24/7 to make all the backups on 3 partitions…
A. Clone of EHD#1 with OS 10.6.8.
B. Back up of Main HD with 10.10.3
C. Time Machine for HD 10.10.3

Since then, things are working… somewhat!  Can you suggest how to handle these problems, please?

1. The cursor in Mail app is always 4-7 characters ahead of where I need to make text changes. Extremely annoying. I did find a fix and the cursor worked for a while. But now it’s doing that again. Is it a bug? A setting? etc

2. Super Duper is not cloning my main HD 10.10.3 correctly. It is set to “Back up user files” daily from my HD to my #2B partition as a bootable drive. It takes over 18 hours each time. It should not be taking that long! It seems to be backing everything up each time. Not sure. What might be wrong?

3. I tried to reboot into my EHD #1 (with OSX10.6., so I can work/use my Freehand files which don’t work in 10.10. Yet, when I click to restart on the new Start Up Disk, it tells me…
“Your computer will start up using OS X 10.10.3 for EHD#1”
But I need it to start with 10.6.8 that is loaded on the EHD#1.
How to make that work?

4. Highlighting a file name seems to only add a color DOT. Before the whole LINE was colored. Is there a way to change this?

5. I have numerous issues with font management of my 1200 fonts (with Font Agent Pro 6). I’ve used Kurt Lang’s font management technique which has grown into an overly detailed 27 page document! I’ve got garbled fonts on some web pages, and on some working files that I print, and one of my clients could not read a PDF proof I sent him. It was garbled text for one font! I’ve never had that happen before on a PDF. Haven’t found the solution yet. I’m guessing, it must have something to do with font conflict in Yosemite.

6. I hate Photos. It is very slow. Everything in Yosemite is very slow. I did upgrade my 24” iMac to 8 GB RAM. Doesn’t seem to have helped. How to speed things up?

Suggestions on any of the numbered items above? Cheers!

[Xairbusdriver]

In no particular order:

QUOTE

4. Highlighting a file name seems to only add a color DOT. Before the whole LINE was colored. Is there a way to change this?

What is happening is that the OS, as always, 'highlights' a selection with whatever 'highlight color' choice you have set. However, it now will show a color "DOT" that is the color you have selected when that item is not selected. In the past, you completely eliminated that color choice whenever the item was selected/highlighted. This way, you may still see that this item is part of a group you have color coded.

QUOTE

2. Super Duper is not cloning my main HD 10.10.3 correctly. It is set to “Back up user files” daily from my HD to my #2B partition as a bootable drive. It takes over 18 hours each time. It should not be taking that long! It seems to be backing everything up each time. Not sure. What might be wrong?

Are these drives USB? If so, they are just that slow, USB 3.0 are about twice as fast. But none are are fast as FireWire. Of course, you get what you pay for.
There is no reason to "guess" about what SD is backing up. It is not as easy as with Carbon Copy Cloner, but it is possible. You should peruse the settings in the "using" pop-up menu, specifically, the "Edit Selected Copy Script" or the "New Copy Script" and then add items in the "Script Commands" tab. In that tab, you can add things to copy, ignore things you don't want to copy, share things (I've never used that, myself). I'd suggest you start by looking at the "Edit Selected Copy" function first and become familiar with what is being copied. You can then decide what you might want to ignore to make the backups faster.
Lastly, you might want to turn OFF the "Repair permissions..." selection, even though that may only save ~10 minutes.

QUOTE

5. I have numerous issues with font management of my 1200 fonts (with Font Agent Pro 6)... I’ve got garbled fonts on some web pages, and on some working files that I print, and one of my clients could not read a PDF proof I sent him.

I assume you have the latest versions of that app?
Fonts on a web site have nothing to do with fonts on your computer. There are several sites offering various cost options and methods for installing or accessing fonts for web use. Some are free, others are one-time fees, others are subscriptions. That's an entire industry and not suitable for review here.
As for PDF font problems, that may be due to the app that is creating them or the fact that you need to fix corrupted fonts on your system.
6. I've never used Photos, but I don't think it is intended for heavy duty, professional use.

Still don't see your computer info in your Profile area, so I don't know what hardware you're using. But 8 GB of memory is probably a minimum for Yosemite. Especially when using memory hogs like Adobe apps. I can't imaging how long it must take PS to load just the font menu!

[Paddy]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Jul 26 2015, 04:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUOTE

2. Super Duper is not cloning my main HD 10.10.3 correctly. It is set to “Back up user files” daily from my HD to my #2B partition as a bootable drive. It takes over 18 hours each time. It should not be taking that long! It seems to be backing everything up each time. Not sure. What might be wrong?

Are these drives USB? If so, they are just that slow, USB 3.0 are about twice as fast. But none are are fast as FireWire. Of course, you get what you pay for.
There is no reason to "guess" about what SD is backing up. It is not as easy as with Carbon Copy Cloner, but it is possible. You should peruse the settings in the "using" pop-up menu, specifically, the "Edit Selected Copy Script" or the "New Copy Script" and then add items in the "Script Commands" tab. In that tab, you can add things to copy, ignore things you don't want to copy, share things (I've never used that, myself). I'd suggest you start by looking at the "Edit Selected Copy" function first and become familiar with what is being copied. You can then decide what you might want to ignore to make the backups faster.
Lastly, you might want to turn OFF the "Repair permissions..." selection, even though that may only save ~10 minutes.

QUOTE

6. I've never used Photos, but I don't think it is intended for heavy duty, professional use.

Still don't see your computer info in your Profile area, so I don't know what hardware you're using. But 8 GB of memory is probably a minimum for Yosemite. Especially when using memory hogs like Adobe apps. I can't imaging how long it must take PS to load just the font menu!

Re: #2, it might be worth contacting Dave Nanian through the SuperDuper forums - there is no way it should be taking 18 hours to back up your files. Even with a USB 2.0 drive!

And USB 3.0 is approximately 3X the speed of USB 2.0 in real world tests on conventional hard drives. With SSDs, it's about 4X the speed. See: http://www.macworld.com/article/2039427/ho...-0-really-.html And USB 3.0 is also considerably faster than FW800 in real world tests, not that any of this makes much difference to Raven, as I suspect the iMac in question hasn't got USB 3.0.

Please do give us your iMac specs (add them to your "My Macs" section in your profile, so you don't have to keep telling us) Raven.

Photos is annoying - just as iPhoto was. I highly recommend Lightroom, which is still available as PURCHASED software. Probably my hands-down favourite application.

[Raven]

I will look into your suggestions over the next few days.

Right now, this is the problem I need to fix ASAP to access my Freehand files...

QUOTE

3. I tried to reboot into my EHD #1 (with OSX10.6., so I can work/use my Freehand files which don’t work in 10.10. Yet, when I click to restart on the new Start Up Disk, it tells me…
“Your computer will start up using OS X 10.10.3 for EHD#1”
But I need it to start with 10.6.8 that is loaded on the EHD#1.
How to make that work?

You good folks here told me it could be done.

 

[Xairbusdriver]

Does Startup prefs show that disk and the OS Version? If so, what is that version number?

[Raven]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Jul 27 2015, 10:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does Startup prefs show that disk and the OS Version? If so, what is that version number?

Sys Prefs /Start up disks show 3 devices, but there are 5 on my desktop:
1) Main HD, 10.10.3.

2) (EHD#2 with 3 Partitions):
- HD clone, 10.10.3,
- Time Machine,
- Clone of EHD#1.

3) EHD#1, 10.10.3
This was my clone for my previous OSX10.6.8 and the Freehand files that I need to get at.
I wanted to use this as a start up disk in 10.6.8.
Now I'm thinking it cloned the 10.10.3 OS instead somehow?

If so, can I revert that somehow back to 10.6.8? Aargh!

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

Now I'm thinking it cloned the 10.10.3 OS instead somehow?

Yep.

The Pref shows you only disks that have Starup capabilities and the OS they will provide. What you see on your Desktop are simply the drives/volumes you have. Even if you named one of them with "OS X 10.6.8"  it still won't tell you if it would even be able to be used to boot from nor what OS it might have installed on it.

I fear that the only way to get the old OS back on that drive involves re-formatting it and that would wipe everything off the drive, including the apps. You would need to make sure any apps that need the old OS are stored on at least one other drive before even thinking about trying to get the old OS back on that drive.

[Raven]

QUOTE

I fear that the only way to get the old OS back on that drive involves re-formatting it and that would wipe everything off the drive, including the apps. You would need to make sure any apps that need the old OS are stored on at least one other drive before even thinking about trying to get the old OS back on that drive.

Xairbusdriver,
Looks like I screwed that up somehow! Bummer. :-(

Is this the procedure for me to fix this?...

Use one partition on my EHD#2 to copy and back up my old 10.6.8 working Freehand MX files, that I need access to,
Drag a copy of the FH app folder to this EHD (cause I'm not sure if it's possible to download it from anywhere else),

Reformat EHD#1 that now has 10.10.3 on it,
And reinstall 10.6.3 from my original DVD?

Finally, transfer everything from the Freehand partition on EHD#2 back to EHD#1 with the goal to get a bootable drive with 10.6.8 to be able to use my Freehand files.

Whew! Does that make sense? If I can get this screw up fixed, I owe you big time!! :-)
I'm very busy at the moment and will have limited access to this over the next few days.

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

Is this the procedure for me to fix this?...

Sounds like what I'd do, but you might as well watch for others to pop in here to tell me I'm crazy (again?)! I'm happy to hear that you still have the install disks! I was worried about that part! Just keep them away from the computer until you get all the files you want off the HD#1!

[Raven]

Tried to load OSX10.6.3 from my original install disks onto one of my partitions on one of my external hard drives.
So I would be able use my Freehand MX files.
It tells me "You can't use this version of the application "Install Mac OS X app" with this version of OS X".

I'm guessing because it already has OS 10.10.3 on it?
If so, do I just erase the partition and start from scratch?

(I'm having a lot of issues with Yosemite. Will deal with them one at a time.)

[chriskleeman]

QUOTE(Raven @ Aug 9 2015, 05:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Tried to load OSX10.6.3 from my original install disks onto one of my partitions on one of my external hard drives.
So I would be able use my Freehand MX files.
It tells me "You can't use this version of the application "Install Mac OS X app" with this version of OS X".

I'm guessing because it already has OS 10.10.3 on it?
If so, do I just erase the partition and start from scratch?

(I'm having a lot of issues with Yosemite. Will deal with them one at a time.)

Hi Raven,

What particular machine are you using? There may be a problem with being able to load 10.6.x depending on the vintage of which computer you are using.

CK  

[Raven]

Chriskleeman,
It's an 24" iMac, 2.66 GHz. Intel Core 2 Duo. 8GB RAM.
I've posted this in my Profile. Don't know why it doesn't show up.

I was using OSX10.6.8 for years before I upgraded to Yosemite. It's been one damn glitch after another trying to get everything working now.
I just want to reload my 10.6.3 install disk onto one of my partitions so I can use it as a Start Up disk. Then I can access my 100s of Freehand MX files which do not work in Yosemite.
Somehow I screwed up that partition. It was supposed to stay in 10.6.8. But now it's 10.10.

Any idea how to load 10.6 onto that partition?
(Heading out of town today and may not get back to this immediately. But any advice would be appreciated. - )

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE("Raven")

I'm guessing because it already has OS 10.10.3 on it?
If so, do I just erase the partition and start from scratch?

QUOTE("Raven")

Somehow I screwed up that partition. It was supposed to stay in 10.6.8. But now it's 10.10.

You have provided your own answer. You can not install an older version of any OS on a disk or partition that has a newer version.

Of course, before you erase the partition, you need to be sure you have backed up any files on it that you need when using the newer OS. I think you have that covered, since you actually have 10.10 on another drive or partition. Once you are satisfied you have those things backed up, you can erase that partition and re-install 10.6 with the install disks you have. Once that is complete, you'll need to update 10.6 to the last version of that (10.6.8, I think) OS.

Remember, naming a disk or partition has no control over what is actually on there. The "Startup Disk" System Pref will report the OS, regardless of what you may have named the disk/partition. "Don't argue with Mother Apple!"

As for your Profile info, there has been several reports that the TS software has problems saving that info. One easy solution is to put the hardware info into the "Signature" area, instead. From any page, menu near the top: My Controls, left hand side menu: Personal Profile, third item: Edit Signature.