Bwaaah! I think I need to do a Clean Reinstall and I'm SCARED!!!

[bettyellen]

with all the info about macs being on the computer itself... and my printer not working, how in the hell am i going to get this right?
any tips, or good sites for advice?
my computers been very slow, and adding Office for Mac just made things worse. I've had it for 2 1/2 years and everyone says it's time. i don't even know how to back up everything.
so, how over my head am i?

[alfredo]

1. First, have you done any maintenance recently like

repairing permissions and other functions in Disk Utilities?


There is also a Printer Setup Utility you can run. It could be you don't have the printer selected.

You can find both in /Applications/Utilities

Here's something you might like to get.

http://www.titanium.free.fr/english.html OnyX will run scripts to clean and maintain your mac.

Back up is easy. Do you have something to back up to?




Two questions: Is your drive filling up? How much RAM?

[bettyellen]

2. i thought i could backup to disks? i don't really know! LOL!

i did repair permissions, and it helped a bit. but i have to empty the safari cache really frequently. it seems worse when i hit pic heavy threads or shop image heavy sites. some pages took 4 minutes to load on ebay today!! my printer is just really old, i think it might be something with the printer iself. i am running safari 1.3.

Hardware Overview:

Machine Model: eMac
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 128 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.6.4f1

[alfredo]

3. Add more memory! Get an additional 256.

Take the computer to the store and they should install it for free. 128 is not near enough, 256 Total is the bare minimum. You will see a big difference.

[bettyellen]

5. you're probably right.

i am so clueless about this. maybe i'll aske them to do the clean reistall at the same time.
thanks!
b

[alfredo]

6. The memory should do the trick on the speed department.

Just make sure your data is backed up properly. The help file for the back up using disk utility is pretty good.

[bettyellen]

9. thank you so much!

i think i'm going to get them to add memory and do the back up and possibly the reinstall if they think i need it all at once.
thanks sooo much!
b

[alfredo]

10. No big thing. I am just passing forward what the Mac community

taught me.

[reprobate]

4. with Mac, backup is easiest to an external harddrive.

I'm using a Maxtor One Touch II with a firewire cconnection and available usb. Using SuperDuper B/U software.

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

You can also make a bootable backup this way, so if your HD gets really trashed, just boot from the backup and you're good to go again.

Another advantage of superduper is that you only have to make one full backup and the next and subsequent backups will be incremental, that is it will back up only what has changed since the last backup. Quick and easy. My incrementals take only about three to four minutes.

On edit: I have no financial interest in SD, only use it and like it.

[cprise]

12. I agree with the others - 128MB is in the low side.

Add 256MB and you'll be set for the life of the machine.

[bettyellen]

14. will do, thank you!

[Poiuyt]

7. It doesn't sound like you need to do a clean reinstall to me

I think Alfredo's right about adding RAM and looking to see if the hard drive is filling up.

What OS are you using? OS X and Microsoft Office both need a lot of RAM, I'd say 512mb to get things to run smoothly.

If your hard drive is more than about 80% full then that could be causing a slowdown also. Your computer needs some head room to operate.

Safari is notorious for causing slowdowns if it is left open too long. There is a memory leak problem. Usually, closing the program solves it.

The other probable cause is that the system needs to have the cache cleaned up. Use a program like Onyx or Yasu (use Yasu if you are using Tiger) to clean things up.

[bettyellen]

8. that works better than just clearing the cache?

i'm going to go check how much memory i'm using. i believe it was about at 2/3 or so.and thanks for your help!

Mount Point : / Capacity : 37.3 GB (40,019,726,336 Bytes)
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Available : 10.4 GB (11,178,315,776 Bytes)
Permissions Enabled : Yes Used : 26.9 GB (28,838,170,624 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 53,330 Number of Files : 203,809


and my memory slots have 1 w/ 128 mb and one empty.

[Poiuyt]

11. It doesn't look like your hard drive is too full

I would just add more RAM and clear the cache with Onyx or Yasu and see if that doesn't help.

[bettyellen]

13. i ran Onyx for now....

and if i keep careful to close Safari every hour or so, I guess I'll be okay till I can take the time to add memory.

[alfredo]

15. Turn off the Genie effect.

[bettyellen]

16. i don't have that on, that's where the icons blow up big right?

in the dock? it's off.

[alfredo]

17. The Genie effect is the animation when you open/close

an app in the doc. I looks good to see the icon sucked down, but it takes a lot of power.

[bettyellen]

18. mine bounce, but they don't grow and shrink when you pass over them

i think you just see the name of the apps when you do that.

[alfredo]

19. That's the magnification effect. Click the minimize button

(center button) and see what it does. If it elongates on its way to the dock that is the genie effect. Click on the minimized window and it will do it in reverse. That takes a lot of memory.

[bettyellen]

20. ah hah! i do have it on.....

but not for long! i just switched to scale effect!!
oh, i have one last question. you know how when you move the mouse sometimes your page(s) gets swiped away to the edges of the screen and minimized?
i want to get rid of that too. it annoys me soo much but i can't find it!
thank you sooo much, alfredo!

[alfredo]

21. That is Expose'

Open System Preferences and go to Dashboard & Expose. Find the corner of the window that causes the Expose action and change that from All Windows to the - That should do it.

You can also change Appearance to Graphite. That will get rid of the gum drop colors on your windows. They will be replaced by Graphite buttons. I think it looks better. It also cuts down on memory use.

Also change to a solid color desktop.

[bettyellen]

22. wow, you know where everything is!

i made all the changes you suggested. i guess that'll have to do till i move or at least get my car out of the shop so i can drag this puppy over to tekserve to add the memory. i figure i'm gong to have to do without for a couple days around the move anyway, might as well use that window of time to deal w/ this.
thanks so much! DUers are the best!
:hug:
Hey nice greenhouse photos-- love the alocasia (or is it colacasia??) and the light on the hostas. nice pics. have you ever done moonflowers? amazing annual everyone should have. you can watch the flowers puff and twist open at dusk!

[alfredo]

23. Thanks. Love that greenhouse.

I have some moon flower pictures I haven't processed. They were shot in the Raw mode. I will have to make the 8 bit so I can mess with them.

[bettyellen]

24. they are my fave thing to start from seeds.

they don't bloom up here until august, but boy when they do, they're amazing.
tks again for everything! i'll check your site next month for the moonflowers!
best
b

[alfredo]

25. If the pictures turn out OK, I will post them here.

[bettyellen]

26. i'll come back and look in then!

[alfredo]

27. I just posted a moon flower in the photography group