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I can't run any of my applications. They suddenly quit and now all I get is a "Damaged or Incomplete" notice. I have an iMac 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5 running OS 10.12.6. Please help. I have tried the /var/folders/ clean up and can't change or delete any of the files. I've been reading all the web advisories and nothing seems to help.
Get a backup, if you don’t have a complete and current one, get one now.
You may have to use Target Disk Mode from another Mac.
That’s if this disk is accessible. One of the causes here can be a disk hardware failure.
Then run Diagnostics or Hardware Test for whichever iMac model year this is.
I’d use Disk Utility or the Carbon Copy Cloner app and clone the whole device out to a scratch storage device.
Copying your home directory will get most of your stuff. It’ll be harder (and manual) to restore, though.
Time Machine would be typical, but that’d more I/O and take longer than might be appropriate here.
Particularly if the storage hardware is failing.
The hard drive hardware tests are Diagnostics and Hardware Test.
Those testing tools don’t detect all errors, but they do detect common failures.
Failing hard drives get slow and flaky.
File system verifications detect corrupt file systems, but not necessarily corrupt files.
And I’d not try any tests, nor first aid, nor any repairs, until after I had a couple of backup copies of my data.
You are making references to tools with which I am entirely unfamiliar. "Disk Utility"? "Carbon Copy Cloner app"? I don't spend my day repairing computers, I just use them to write stuff mostly. E-mail, research, etc. "I/O" W/T/F? I am copying the "home Directory" as you say. I thought if I called it a "house" you might understand my level of non sophistication in this emergency. Is "Disk Utility" a Mac app? Is it already installed somewhere? I do have a 3TB hard drive with sufficient storage. I'd rather not make multiple copies of the same data. If you suggest that I start over, what steps should I take, one by one?
It’s your data to preserve, or to salvage.
Given your comments, you might be better served outsourcing this to a local provider. This if you don’t want to learn about computer maintenance and upkeep. And computer jargon. Get somebody in to set up backups, and to preserve or to salvage what they can here, and to re-install macOS. There’s nothing wrong or unusual with doing that outsourcing too, as it’s basically what the IT folks do in most any organization.
If this isn’t a corrupt system time or some other reparable issue, this may well end up with a macOS re-installation or a hardware repair.
A whole-disk copy (clone) is easier to reload, and easier to migrate. Reloading piecemeal backups is manual, and Is more involved.
Disk Utility:
https://www.lifewire.com/use-disk-utility-to-clone-macs-drive-4042367
This will be a multi-step recovery. Getting the backup is the first step, to try to preserve your data. And to preferably preserve your data in a way that’s restorable without requiring manual reconstruction. This backup will then be followed by checking the hardware, and by repairing macOS and/or re-loading macOS, or repairing the hardware if that’s failed. We haven’t gotten there, yet.
Also, I have made a complete copy of my Home Directory. I have enough space left on the external drive to make another copy of the iMac's hard drive (it's about 800 GB versus 1.1 TB on the external drive), but do I need to keep the Home Directory copy also? I feel like I'm copying the same stuff over and over.
The bulk of the “stuff” you’re copying is your data. Imagine what happens here when that data is corrupted or lost.
Get somebody local to help sort this with you, and to help you learn about backups and recovery and restoration. Maybe a Mac class at a local Apple Store?
PowerBook is ancient. If that’s really what you’re using here, there’ll be other issues resolving this. i’m assumin MacBook or MacBook Pro, running some probably-older macOS version.
I am looking at the article you recommended about cloning macs from lifewire, but the instructions are unclear to me. I am attempting to make a close of my MB Pro's internal drive to an external drive, but the example given discusses making a clone from one external drive to another. Also, I am concerned about this warning: "The sheet will also warn you that the volume you selected as the destination will be erased, and its data will be replaced with data from the source volume." Does this run a risk of erasing data while I'm trying to copy it? I thought the point was to clone the disk to a folder on another disk.
I can still transfer files via the finder to storage that is connected to the iMac. I'm worried about my mail files. I have thousands of them on the disk.
No backups is no backups. Get a current backup. Don’t expend I/O on other activities or repairs until you have a backup.
Okay, I am backing up the folder with my name and a picture of a little house. Is that everything? Based on its size, I'm thinking it is, but is there anything else?
Disk Utility will not start from my iMac. Do you mean to suggest that I use Target Disk Mode from my Powerbook to start up Disk Utility and then copy my iMac Hard Drive?
Mac Book Pro circa 2015 OS 10.11.6.
You didn't answer my question re: Target Disk Mode and Disk Utility. Should I use my MBPro for this operation?
Thanks.
Damaged or Incomplete Alert
