Stacey04
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Question about spinning ball issues and OS reinstall.

I have a late 2008 white MacBook running Lion.  A while back I was having problems with the spinning beach ball appearing anytime I tried to change between apps or websites.  I had tried the command+r on bootup, terminal, passwordreset tip to repair the permissions and ACLs.  It fixed the issue for a day or two, but that is all.  I ended up making the decision to back up my information and reinstall the software.  Somehow after the reinstall when I went to restore my data I ended up with two separate user accounts (one was the backup).  It really is a pain in the butt to have to switch back and forth between accounts when I need to look for an old file.

 

Anyway, I am having the same problem again.  I never had an issue with my MacBook until I installed Lion.  I've gone into the boot menu twice so far today to repair the permissions and ACLs and now I need to do it again.  I want to try another OS reinstall, but I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to merge the two user accounts first so that I don't end up with two or three accounts after everything is said and done.  I've tried to figure it out myself, but I've not had much luck.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Nov 7, 2012 2:31 PM

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Stacey04

Q: Question about spinning ball issues and OS reinstall.

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  • by BGreg,

    BGreg BGreg Nov 7, 2012 7:08 PM in response to Stacey04
    Level 6 (17,522 points)
    Nov 7, 2012 7:08 PM in response to Stacey04

    When you've gone into the recovery menu, using Disk Utility have you repaired your hard drive, and if so, did it complete without errors? It would be the same place you repair permissions from, using Disk Utility.

     

    How much memory do you have? A number of people have found that the minimum 2GB for Lion can cause poor performance, which is fixed by going to 4GB.

     

    You have 10% or more of your disk space free on your hard drive? Less than that can cause system performance issues.

  • by Stacey04,

    Stacey04 Stacey04 Nov 7, 2012 7:14 PM in response to Stacey04
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2012 7:14 PM in response to Stacey04

    Yeah, I've used the repair utility in the recovery menu.  Sometimes when I repair the disk and run it a couple of times I find that the second time there will be even more errors than before.  It doesn't seem to be fixing them at all.

     

    I have 2GB of memory, and over 73GB of free space on my hard drive (only used about 40GB).

  • by BGreg,

    BGreg BGreg Nov 7, 2012 7:30 PM in response to Stacey04
    Level 6 (17,522 points)
    Nov 7, 2012 7:30 PM in response to Stacey04

    Yeah, I've used the repair utility in the recovery menu.  Sometimes when I repair the disk and run it a couple of times I find that the second time there will be even more errors than before. 

     

    That sounds like your doing repair permissions. There are certain permissions that will always show when you repair permissions, and are not an error. See this Apple note listing them.

     

    A repair disk, which is different than repairing permissions, should not yield any error messages. If it does, you have an issue(s) that needs to be fixed. You should go back and do a repair disk. It should give you some statistics then tell you everything is OK, or give you error message(s).

     

    Part of your spinning beach ball problem may be your 2GB of memory. Consider upgrading using either OWC or Crucial memory, both which work well in macs.  A 4GB upgrade (2 x 2GB) can run $20 to $60.

  • by Stacey04,

    Stacey04 Stacey04 Nov 7, 2012 8:10 PM in response to Stacey04
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2012 8:10 PM in response to Stacey04

    Sorry, my brain is fried tonight.  When I repair the disk I get no errors.  When I repair the permissions, I do see the ones from the Apple Note (I noticed them the last time too) but there are others too. 

     

    I am still trying to figure out how to merge the user accounts too.  I think I am going call it a night and try again tomorrow.  Thanks for your help!