Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Need help with Disc Utitily

Just need some guidance here. The other day I went onto my "Activity Monitor" and saw that my 1GB memory in my Macbook had just a little sliver of green. I also had some page outs. So I ran disc repair and wala! over 500MB of space in my memory and no page outs. Now a few days later I look again and not much free space in memory, but not as bad and way more page outs than b4. So I did the same thing but this time it again opened up a lot of free space, but it had no effect on the page outs. BTW, I have all my applications out of use when I check. Browsers closed etc.

I am wondering if the page outs really matter any. I have 35% left on my disc so it is not maxed out at all, and 282 MB in page outs, so that is a small portion of my hard drive. Free space on memory comes and goes. I assume the page outs happen when I run out of memory. And BTW I have 4GB ordered which should help when it arrives.

So my real question is: Are the page outs a problem? Why did I get rid of them the first time and 2nd time not? And, It annoys me when my laptops fan comes on and it gets slow. How to prevent that. It seems to happen even while I still have free space on my memory, so I am assuming it is not a memory issue. I am updating to Snow L soon so perhaps there will be more protection then? My guess is that If I am on a site that works my computer hard it is because there is mal stuff coming in. Although it often happens on Gov sites. I would not expect them to have that kind of stuff....But I am sure there are those who think differently LOL

Thanks for any clarifications you can give me on these endeavors.

Ron

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Dec 12, 2012 9:08 PM

Best reply

BDAqua

Level 10

239,279 points

Posted on Dec 12, 2012 9:38 PM

Hi, was it Repair Disk, or Repair Permissions as it sounds what you did?

282 MB in page outs isn't bad, it sounds like you have something eating up Inactive memory.

Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.

View in context

29 replies

Dec 21, 2012 7:27 PM in response to plastermaster

so I installed the new 4GB memory and Activity Monitor and I are enjoying a cold one 🙂 I used to quit programs to keep my computer running faster, or from bogging down. Now its the oposite. I keep them open and memory spits them up faster when I need them than if they were starting up again.

I also have my Snow Leopard disc reay to install. I want to get some experienced opinions if any of you can help with that...I do not have my back ups with me at this time. I am away from home for a couple weeks. So I am a little leary of doing the install and having ? happen. Will I loose passwords that are remembered on my mac? Will anything I have now somehow become buried? I can always call applecare for that, but they can only work with what they have. Snow leopard is what it is. Am I correct in thinking that the upgrade will not have any effect on what is on my disc, cookies, and so forth?

Thanks

Ron

BDAqua

Level 10

239,279 points

Dec 21, 2012 9:22 PM in response to plastermaster

Great to hear Ron. in THEORY you won't lose anything, I still wouldn't do it on the road! 😉

But if you mus, at least do this first...

"Try Disk Utility

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.

2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at the top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)

Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.

3. Click the First Aid tab.

4. Select your Mac OS X volume.

5. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.

(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)

Dec 21, 2012 9:45 PM in response to BDAqua

By "C" key do you mean the command key or the actual letter C key like for typing "cat" "cart" etc?

The OS X install disc: is that the disc that came with my Macbook or the Snow leopard disc? (I thought all the operating systems were OS X variants).

#5. Click repair. Is the disc in need of repair or is this sort of a pairing with the new SL disc?

Since you said at the beginning "Do this first? It sounds like this is b4 installing SL and what we are doing is preparing the hard drive (disc) to recieve SL with less chance of a problem? Sorry for the bone head questions. 🙂

BDAqua

Level 10

239,279 points

Dec 21, 2012 10:44 PM in response to plastermaster

letter c.

The newest OSX Disc you have, SL/10.6 in this case.

WE don't know if it needs repairor not, but it won't hurt to do it whether it does or not. 🙂

Yes, before installing, if there are any errors on the Disk then nobody can predict what'll get borked, Repairing it helps insure that things will go right as possible.

Hey, no worry on the questions... it's the right thing to do if you have questions... despite my dear old dad whopping you upside the head for asking when you should know, then whopping you upside the head because you should've asked if you didn't know when you messed it up!???

Dec 22, 2012 2:12 PM in response to BDAqua

Another question: After this whole process you recommended ealier (being done with SL disc installed) and permissions repair completed in safe mode, Then I restart again NOT in safe mode, and with the SL disc ejected? In other words Once I have done the install in safe mode and repaired any possible problems do I then do an install in regular mode or after the safe mode install am I all done and the upgrade complete.

To sum it up. I am going to upgrade to SL in safe mode and do the disc and permissions repair as you directed and then I'm done. (as long as it is working OK. )

If worst comes to worst I do have my 10.5 disc with me, but That might be even more of a problem as I probably cannot get updates for it since Apple does not support 10.5 now.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,279 points

Dec 22, 2012 7:46 PM in response to plastermaster

Then I restart again NOT in safe mode, and with the SL disc ejected?

Doesn't really matter.

To sum it up. I am going to upgrade to SL in safe mode and do the disc and permissions repair as you directed and then I'm done. (as long as it is working OK. )

Yes, after install, try Safe mode first for updates, but that's just triple/quadruple safety, you can do it otherwise.

Apple does not support 10.5 now.

Well, you can still get the 10.5 updates for 10.5 as far asthey go thouggh. 🙂

Dec 23, 2012 4:19 PM in response to plastermaster

With the 4GB of memory, no more page outs. Nice!

Snow Leopard is now installed. I started to update but shortly into it I realised I better wait until I get back to my normal IP. I am currently using a verzon card that is a 1GB/month plan and the updates are over 1GB. Also it looked like it would take 4 hours! I might go to a nearby coffee shop and see if it is faster there.

My main question now is how I have so much more space on my HD. IT concerns me a little. WIth 10.5 I had 47 GB free space on my HD now that 10.6 is installed I have 93 GB free! Any ideas as to what happened there?

Are there any programs that come with SL that I would be better off scrapping? There was the option for custom install but I could not use if for some reason and I am always hesitant to delete anything that I do not know what it is and that is most of the content.

I remember my old PC in safe mode was really different than reg mode. With my macbook I am still in safe mode (just finished the upgrade and haven't gone to reg mode yet) and it doesn't look any different than normal. Does that sound correct?

Thanks

Ron

BDAqua

Level 10

239,279 points

Dec 23, 2012 5:45 PM in response to plastermaster

might go to a nearby coffee shop and see if it is faster there.

Good idea.

WIth 10.5 I had 47 GB free space on my HD now that 10.6 is installed I have 93 GB free! Any ideas as to what happened there?

Pretty strange, I could guess, but too little to go on really.

Are there any programs that come with SL that I would be better off scrapping?

Not much to be gained with any APPs, unused Langes & Printer Drivers would be the biggest things.

I am still in safe mode (just finished the upgrade and haven't gone to reg mode yet) and it doesn't look any different than normal. Does that sound correct?

Really tough to tell the diff, some high end APPs won't run because of lesser drivers, like for Video, that & the Login with the rred Safe Mode line are about it.

Dec 24, 2012 3:30 PM in response to plastermaster

So I went to the coffee shop and downloaded 4 of the 5 software updates. The updates hit a snag a couple times and stopped so I had to start the process over again, but fortunately it picked up at the beginning of the update that it was working on at the time. When I shut down the macbook they installed prior to shutting down. However when I click on "about this mac" it still says 10.6.3. I was expecting it would say 10.6.7 since I supposedly downloaded 4 updates. At least that is how 10.5 worked IIRC. Is this something I should look into further, or call apple maybe?

As far as scrapping anything useless form SL, with 93 GB free on a 111GB drive, I guess that would be a little obsessive-compulsive, unless there is something that is a known problem.

I called apple and asked about SL freeing up 45GB on my HD. They had no idea. Most people gain 8-15 GB. I googled it and found one person who had a case where for some reason their mac just mis-represented the free space.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,279 points

Dec 24, 2012 6:38 PM in response to plastermaster

Sometimes correcting the Disk Directory, like with a Safe Boot, will correct eroneous free Space reports.

You need the big 10.6.8 Combo...

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399

Dec 24, 2012 10:14 PM in response to BDAqua

So, I'm thinking that I was overstated PRIOR to SL and installing SL in safe mode corrected it. WHen I bought this Mac, the apple store loaded my old PC's content into it under admin documents. A lot of that content was also in user documents. I don't know if it is possible but I wonder if it was counted twice when it was only taking up space once...For now I'll stick to questions more than answers. 🙂

Thanks for the link to 6.8! I guess the time I spent downloading softwear updates was kind of a waste as they were probably just 6.3 updates. I should have been downloading the 6.8 from the store. Oh Well...

BDAqua

Level 10

239,279 points

Dec 24, 2012 10:14 PM in response to plastermaster

Slight possibility, but I'm pretty sure it was the Safe Boot which repairs the Directory, things like block counts, free space, used space, etc. that did it, the Install of 10.6 was not really a factor after that. 🙂

Dec 24, 2012 10:19 PM in response to BDAqua

Yeah thats what I meant, the safe boot part.

**** your fast! 🙂

BDAqua

Level 10

239,279 points

Dec 24, 2012 10:26 PM in response to plastermaster

Happy Holidays! 🙂

Need help with Disc Utitily