Reinstall Snow Leopard

Doing a reinstall is a bit of over kill. Why not post your issues to the particular forums and see if they can be resolved.

Have you done the usual maintenance things - startup from the installation cd and use Disk Utility to repair disk then when all is ok to repair permissions? If not I recommend this as a first step.

Try starting in 'safe mode' by holding the shift key until the grey Apple logo appears and test iPhoto & iMovie. If they strart well then it is likely some 3rd party software is causing the problem. Hunting this down can be tedious.

If this works try establishing another account through System preferences/Accounts and see whether these 2 applications work well. If they do it could be that your present account has some glitch.

If you have done these another suggestion is to download the latest combo update from Apple Downloads and install this over the top of what you have already. This can correct some problems and shouldn't affect your Windows partition.

Let's know how you get on.

Neville

I prefer to do this :
-Backup some important Data/Files to Flash Memory;
-Restart Mac and boot from DVD (C Button);
-Run Disk Utility;
-Erase All partition with Mac Format;
-Re-Install Mac OS X Snow Leopard;
-You can restore your Data/Files From Flash Memory and setting preferences manually !

See:

Mac Maintenance Quick Assist,
Mac OS X speed FAQ,
Speeding up Macs,
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines,
Maintaining OS X, and
Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X for information.

mcintoshandpc wrote:
-You can restore your Data/Files From Flash Memory and setting preferences manually !

For most of us, resetting all our preferences manually would be a very time consuming chore. (For instance, the Finder plist preference file alone can contain hundreds of items.) But manually "restoring" plists from a backup piecemeal fashion is not a good idea for at least two reasons:

1. These files often contain internal references to one another & to other files. Some of these references are specific to the file system structure at the time of their creation. The OS normally automatically makes any needed changes in these references when the file structure changes. However, if the references are to a file structure that no longer exists, the OS may not be able to resolve them. When that happens, it may simply discard the reference completely, effectively resetting the preference value to defaults. In some circumstances, it will instead resolve the references incorrectly, leading to unexpected results.

Neither result is desirable behavior.

2. A common reason for resorting to the "nuclear" solution of erasing the disk & starting over is to eliminate any hard-to-find problems in the preexisting files created by the OS or by applications. A very common cause of mis-operation & unexpected behavior is corrupted preference files. It makes no sense to go to the trouble of erasing the disk if you are just going to put the same potentially damaged files back on it.

I am about to attempt a clean install...any do's & don'ts I should be aware of?

It's time for a mac make-over, streamline files & applications. My mac needs to run mainstage for live music performance & needs to be firing on all cylinders.

I have backed up everything & am ready to go...but am unsure of what I am doing so any help & advice would be most gratefully received.

Many thanks,

Nick

Hi Nick;

I guess you didn't read what was said about Macs very rarely requiring the nuclear solution like Windows PC do, have you? Personally, I think your plan is only going to waste time. If you have time to waste proceed. If not, then I would just starting getting ready for the show.


___________________

Allan


Message was edited by: Allan Eckert

When my mid-2008 24" iMac developed a problem with the DVD drive (wouldn't recognize blank disks) the Genius Bar person suspected a software problem rather than a hardware one. After a few tests he suggested that I reinstall Snow Leopard. I simply inserted the Snow Leopard disk and told it to reinstall (can't remember the exact wording). I did not erase or repartition the disk.

It didn't take long, and everything else was left intact: data, settings, preferences, etc. That seemed to solve the problem and was fairly painless.

Thanks Allan

Sorry to say I haven't read much about this at all...so thanks very much for the advice. I was concerned about 'black screen' which I seem to be getting with increasing frequency, a few audio issues with logic & it bothers me that my mac runs so hot! Not even sure if this really is an issue?

Your thoughts would be helpful as time is very precious just at the moment preparing for not just one show, it's a 4 month residency, 6 nights a week!

Nick

Thanks, that's very helpful...will give it a try

Nick