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I want to restore the system but keep files intact, what's recommended?

My computer started crashing out of the blue with the use of aperture, not sure if the library is too big to handle or what. Later I realized that it's not only crashing with aperture but with anything else that's not firefox.

With the use of aperture the computer crashes into a white background with vertical lines and a scary noise. With other programs goes into a black mode where I cannot get my background or any image back. In all cases I have to restart.

Because I have a laptop I don't like to have the time machine plugged in all the time so my latest back up is not current. That's why I'm afraid to restore the HD from the time machine, I feel I'm gonna loose all the new info if I restart from a time machine few months old.

Any helpful advise will be super appreciated as I need to resolve this to be able to work!!


Thanks a lot!

MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Mar 5, 2013 11:53 AM

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14 replies

Mar 5, 2013 11:56 AM in response to iwidesign

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive


Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.


When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.


Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Mar 5, 2013 4:56 PM in response to Kappy

Unfortunately it did not work. Disk appears Ok, permissions verified and repaired.

My screen moves horizontally and gets stuck cut in half, frozen, image of desktop or applications look jagged. I have to restart :( I'm not able to do anything for more than a minute.

Could it be a virus?

How do I proceed?


Thanks again?!

Mar 5, 2013 6:07 PM in response to iwidesign

There aren't any viruses. I suggest you go the next step. Backup, erase drive, reinstall:


Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch


Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.


Boot to the Recovery HD:


Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


Erase the hard drive:


1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.


2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the

left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.


3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on

the Security button and set the ZeroData option to one-pass. Click on

the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.


4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.


Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible

because it is three times faster than wireless.

Mar 6, 2013 11:29 AM in response to iwidesign

Option 1: Boot the computer into Single-user Mode then restart normally.


Option 2: Create a new user account with admin privileges. Log out of your account and log into the new account. See if the problems cease.


If you don't want to reinstall from scratch because you do not have a backup, then this would be a good excuse for setting up a backup system and backup strategy.

Mar 6, 2013 1:54 PM in response to Kappy

I'll give it a try, reinstalling Mountain Lion didn't work either, though when I ran again disk utility other permissions showed up for repair.

How do I restore all my stuff if I have to erase the disk, this is such a pain reinstalling programs blah blah blah. I have a back up done with time machine but the computer had problems already.

I have no more time to waste with this I need it running, so frustrating!!


Thanks for your advise

Mar 21, 2013 9:19 PM in response to iwidesign

Hi Kappy, the problem was not solved. My computer is still crashing, do you know if the disk might be damaged? Even if it says it's OK. Brand new operating system installed after erasing the disk the secure way (took 13 hs), only Adobe Suite CS5 installed, crashing again/blue screen when trying to restart.

What can I do, I'm getting desparate as it is the only computer I have to get work done.


Thank you!


Ceci

I want to restore the system but keep files intact, what's recommended?

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