A raccoon in my computer.

Question

A raccoon in my computer.

Hoping that got someone's attention - that's a message that I really got onscreen.
I'm trying to Secure Empty Trash - there are two 'previous systems' in there that are taking up lots of space on my 60G HD. I start the 'trash' process - after the OS counts up the items to be discarded (up in the high hundreds of thousands) I get the message "The item 'raccoon' is in use" and some other bit of useless information - the trashing cannot proceed.
I am considering doing a Time Machine backup to an external HD and then _formatting the HD_ in this laptop. I'll reinstall OSX and then bring data, libraries, etc back in. Am I crazy? Is this possible? I am getting all kinds of flakey messages and the occasional Kernel Panic and it seems like the only solution is to get a fresh start - I can't afford to buy a new PowerBook (or MacBook or whatever).
Suggestions and comments greatly appreciated.

PowerBook G4, Mac OS X (10.5.1), 60G HD, 1Gig ram

Posted on Oct 22, 2008 6:30 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 22, 2008 7:02 AM in response to Michael Murphy2

Wow. that sounds really bad.

"raccoon" is the system program that handles IPSec VPN negotiation. It shouldn't be in your trash folder.

Find another mac somewhere, hook yours to it in target disk mode, and run Disk Utility to repair the disk. It sounds like you've got some filesystem corruption.

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Answer 2

Oct 22, 2008 7:09 AM in response to Unix Ronin

Thanks for the reply, Ronin - if I don't get any other suggestions I'll try what you recommend, but I'd really like to get back a lot of that disk space. I've done 'archive and install' of the OS a couple of times to get past problems, hence the 'previous systems' - if I were to format the disk after a full external backup would that take care of the disk problems that this message indicates?

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Answer 3

Oct 22, 2008 7:19 AM in response to Michael Murphy2

Yes, a full reinstall would also fix it. That's a rather extreme solution, but you sound like you might not have a lot of other options (eg, no access to another mac to clean up your mac's drive while your mac isn't watching.)

Careful with the backup, though. If your filesystem is as messed up as it sounds, who knows what data you'll really be reading from it. Validate all your important files before you format the thing.

Disk Utility, Repair Disk is your best bet.

Another thing you might try, if you have an external drive you're not using, is to boot your mac with the install cd, and install OSX onto the external drive, then reboot your mac from the external drive (hold cmd-opt-shift-delete at boot). This will leave your internal drive dormant and you can go in and try to salvage all your important files and safely run disk utility to repair the internal drive.

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Answer 4

Oct 22, 2008 7:41 AM in response to Unix Ronin

Well, Ronin, it sounds like any path I choose will require some hours of time - so I like your last suggestion. I'll install OSX on the 250G Iomega drive and work on my HD from there. I may (most likely will!) have further questions for you as I go through that process. Thanks for your help.

The main problem that I see with the format solution is that I think I won't know what data/libraries/emails, etc. to bring back in - or more to the point, how to bring them back in.

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