Can't drag/drop or copy/paste; spotlight missing

My tests indicate that repairs of these files always needs a reboot to be effective. See my earlier post with a script.

The reason I said "don't do that" is because the instruction (sudo rm -rf /private) would destroy your OS. The private folder contains folders other than tmp. These other folders contain files which are required by the OS and would probably have to be replaced by a new OS install.

I am not sure why it happens. Do you use OS 9 on the same Mac? Do you try recovering from utilities such as TimeMachine or Carbon Copy Cloner? It is unlikely that normal applications cause the problem. Do you use any non-Apple utilities to 'clean' your Mac?

I did restore with Carbon Copy Cloner, but I don't use anything but Disk Utility for maintainance, and I don't have OS 9. Actually, the problem started occuring again today. I fixed it by rebooting without even repairing the permissions. So I might have a different problem. It's rare, so I'm not very worried about it.

If my Mac ever did that I would do a clean install before the issue developed into something more serious.

A clean install is great if you don't have too much stuff, particularly third-party applications, on your Mac. But for some of us that is the absolute last thing to try - though I have done it, as I've said above, when nothing else worked. Still, an occasional problems like failing drag and drop and copy and paste functions is a sign of significant damage of one kind or another. If you cannot fix it permanently, chances are it will eventually grow more serious. So you may choose to ignore it or procrastinate dealing with it, but you can be sure that sooner or later it will hamstring your system.

Actually, I misspoke. I didn't restore with CCC; that was earlier. My current bootup disk is a fresh installation, and I copied over the home folder and my applications with Migration Assistant.

I keep backups, so I'm not worried about risking system stability.