is drive genius 3 compatible with mountain lion

According to the vendor it is. I wouldn't expect Drive Genius to help with a freezing issue, though.

What exactly does your Mac do? Some troubleshooting information:

Isolating Issues

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode. Shut down the computer and then power it back up. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal.

Safe Mode

Safe Mode - About

General information.

Troubleshooting Permission Issues

Step by Step to Fix Your Mac

"Drive Genius," like all so-called "utilities," is completely worthless and won't solve your problem. When you need help, it's best to describe the problem itself, rather than your conclusion as to what's causing it or how it should be solved.

The next time you have the problem, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.

Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar.

Scroll back in the log to the time you noted above. Select any messages timestamped from then until the end of the episode. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.

When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.

Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Hi Photogirl123,

Good advice from ER.. also it would be worth double checking if you have updated any major Apps or the Apple OS to 10.8.2 during the timescale concerned.. since this might cause one or more incompatibilities (this can lead to freezing).. Manufaturers' websites should list any known issues.

Utilitiy software such as Drive Genius, Disk Warrior, Tech Tool Pro, etc are best kept specifically for data recovery ( they must be kept up to date and may lag behind the current Apple OS by a noticable margin) but in many cases they are now priced almost the same as an external hard drive, so backing up with Time Machine is more cost effective than ever.. as a safety precaution always back up your data, before troubleshooting.

/dance with Modinator

No worries PG, glad you got a solution to the problem.

For future reference, it is worth bearing in mind that loading a new OS onto a Mac with problems can make it worse, rather than better.. always make sure you have all the updates prior to a new OS.. its also worth doing the Fix Permissions 'spring clean' before loading a new OS.. and make sure you have safely backed up your data.

Although it is possible for Macs to be directly affected by malware, it is currently quite rare..when you load Apps onto your Mac, the install procedure may automatically put shortcut links into the Dock and/or into Login items.. out of date links in Login Items can cause your Mac to be noticably slow to complete the Boot cycle (and other issues).. as would automatic links to shared folders on a network or an external drive you no longer use.

So the person you consulted was correct to mention it is worth checking what is in Login items, from time to time (remembering that some items may be meant to be there, if they relate to Apps you still use).