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I Did A Stupid, Stupid Thing.

I read a newspaper story on 5 ways to remove unwanted files from your computer, and I downloaded one called "ccleaner", and it promptly reeked havoc on my whole computer. I have a 20" iMac, purchased in January, 2007 running on Snow Leopard.


A few hours after downloading ccleaner, I kept getting the spinning beach ball of death, and my computer ran extremely slow. It took 5 to 10 minutes to simply open up a photo, or go to another page. I also discovered that ccleaner wiped out a number of my documents and other important files. The one smart thing that I did do was to have almost everything important on my computer backed up somewhere else.


I moved ccleaner into the trash and reinstalled Snow Leopard. Everything ran fast and smoothly like it had before, for 6 days. Then yesterday, I started to get the spinning beach ball of death again, and everything slowed down just like before, like ccleaner was still reeking havoc. I shut down the computer and restarted it. Now it only goes to the grey page with the apple logo and the spinning time circle beneath it, and it won't advance to the login page. I tried unplugging the power cord and restarting. I tried holding down the command, option, p and r keys when restarting. Now, I get the grey apple screen, and below the spinning time circle is a progress bar. The bar fills up about 10%, then stops, then it goes away and another progress bar shows up, fills up about 10%, stops, and then the iMac shuts off. I did install the startup disk and was able to run a short and a long hardware test, and both times it said that no hardware problems were detected.


I would like to try and reinstall Snow Leopard again, but I need to get beyond the grey apple screen (don't I?). Is there anything else I can try? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for your help.


<Edited by Host>

iPod touch

Posted on Jan 3, 2013 2:55 PM

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Posted on Jan 3, 2013 4:04 PM

i have never done this but regarding the grey page

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

http://www.ehow.com/how_7385269_restart-apple-grey-screen.html


hopefully it helps you

16 replies

Jan 3, 2013 8:52 PM in response to MonarchMan

Moving apps like that into the trash usually get's rid of about 80% of it. There is usually an Uninstaller, but OK, let's just move forward. I think your idea of erasing everything is what is needed. I'm so sorry.


To avoid this crapolo in the future -- Don't install any "cleaning" apps. If your Mac is slow, we can tell you what to look for. Don't install AV, internet security, Norton, Intego, without asking here first. Actually, Never install anything Norton.


ClamXav is non-destructive, if you feel you have to have AV on your Mac.


I think what people don't understand is that Macs are designed to automatically address problems.


Let us know how you are doing after the Erase and Install, OK?

Jan 4, 2013 4:09 PM in response to MonarchMan

speaking candidly, ccleaner is great on the windows side but for some reason it is challenging on the mac side

(call it another person who learned a lesson as well - so dont feel bad) ive started reading the comments on that

app store and when i see negaitives - i kind of keep away from the some of the apps.


but good luck on the revcovery ==== just a thought


can you create a new account for yourself (assuming its admin) and then try all of your applications and processes under the new accout.....moving all over.... then delete the old account...


this helped me work around the issue I had with cccleaner

Jan 4, 2013 6:05 PM in response to MonarchMan

It was not CCleaner that hosed your system. More then likely you have a failing HDD. Maybe CCleaner just sped up the process of the failure.


If you reinstalled and everything was fine for X # of days then started to go bad that is a sure sign of drive problems.


I've used CCleaner on both Windows and Mac without problems. But then my Mac is just over a year old where as your Mac is 6 years old. 6 years is a long time for a HDD to last in a iMac.


Good Luck and Best Wishes on the Format and reinstall. If after you do that and in another X # of days things go bad again it may be time ti think about replacing the HDD.

Jan 5, 2013 5:47 AM in response to Shootist007

shootist,


a thought - when i downloaded cclearner on the mac side ( i believe i ran it with default setting) plus i ran a couple of added options (like i would on the win side) and speaking candidly everything was just wrong after I restarted (to put it mildly).


I created a new account and everything was ok (got lucky)


i didnt read any user guide or help area assuming I knew what I was doing because of the windows side, but it was a mess.... im hoping the new account helps

Jan 5, 2013 11:42 AM in response to michaelsip4

Just an update. I wiped my imac clean yesterday, and reinstalled Snow Leopard, ilife, and iwork, and all the updates. Everything is running smoothly and fast, just like new. Thanks to all who helped get me back up and running again 🙂 I went to the app store and checked out the reviews for ccleaner, and was shocked after reading all the negative comments. Looks like there were a lot of people who's computers were decimated by ccleaner, so I wasn't the only one.


Looks like my hard drive is OK, but it got me to thinking that perhaps I should get a cheap laptop/notebook as a backup to do most of my internet searching, emails and such, to save wear and tear on my "old" imac, and save the imac for more substantial tasks. For now, my only backup is my new ipod touch. I'll have to look into it. Thanks again everybody.

Jan 5, 2013 11:50 AM in response to MonarchMan

Hi Monarch --


Well, glad things worked out OK in the end, eh? Honestly, your Mac can handle searching, emails,etc,. just fine. I don't think you need a cheap laptop. However, if you invest less than $100 for an external HD where you can use Time Machine or SuperDuper to make regular backups, you'll never lose anything valuable.


Just stay away from anything with "cleaner" in it's name, MacDefender, MacKeeper, and certainly, never put anything Norton on your Mac. Just my humble opinion. All the best!


🙂

I Did A Stupid, Stupid Thing.

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