My imac 08 running Snow Leopard keeps freezing. Have to unplug to restart. Sometimes I get a blinking question folder, sometimes it boots and works for a bit but then I get the spinning ball and no control. Would disc doctor or something help?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Sounds like a Hard Drive Problem.
1. Start from your Mac OS X Install disc: Insert the installation disc, then restart the computer while holding the Option or C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (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. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
If you can not see or repair the Hard Drive, then it needs to be replaced.
Thanks den.thed,
Things are running a bit better. I believed one of my issues may be that I needed more space on my hard drive so I was moving BIG files to an external and deleting unneeded ones from the external. While it was moving them the screen froze and when I restarted, the big files were no longer showing up on the external, but were in my desktop trash folder. They don't appear visually on my external but when I "get info" on the external they must still be there because it is still holding 1TB of data which should be gone. ALSO, when i try to empty my trash, it won't, and gives me error code 8003. Please help if you can on how to either get the external to show the files and/or get the trash to empty them.
THANKS
Brad
If I understand correctlly, you are trying to move files from your Internal Hard Drive and copy them to an External. Is that correct?
If so, what type and how large are the files that you are trying to move? Reason I ask is because you can only copy 2GB or smaller to a MS-DOS FAT-32 External Hard Drive, which brings up another question. How is the External Hard Drive formatted that you are trying to move file to?
Hello,
Here is an update:
I bought a 3TB external HD and backed up my 238GB imac hard drive using Time Machine. Then dragged the old backup Time Machine files to the trash from the original 2TB external I had been using. (This now seems to be the problem-more in a minute) I then started moved the biggest art and photo files, (about 80MB) to this 2TB external which seems to have improved how my mac is running. It isn't freezing anymore or giving me a blinking "?"folder.
BUT, While I was emptying the trash of these giant backup folders, the machine did freeze and when restarted, won't empty them anymore. It runs for a very long time telling me it has over 2 million files to trash, but then gives me an error code #8003 while leaving all those large unwanted backups and any other discards in the trash. I can't use the trash at all unless I first dismount the 2TB external (taking all those big backups with it) and then the trash will work for the discards on my destop.
Initially I had some luck emptying the trash of desktop discards by using a safe boot, but when I realized I could dismount the external and empty the destop discards I stopped doing safe boots.
So my problem now seems to be how to get rid of old Time Machine backups on the external. I would like to free up that 1TB of space for storing the big art and photos files I still want to move.
I'm wondering there was a proper way to get rid of old Time Machine backups that I messed up by trying to drag and drop in the trash and then they got orphaned or something when by machine froze.
Thanks for any help.
Brad
PS. When I followed your advice about disk utility repairs, it said their weren't any problems.
Ah OK, you were not supose to move or delete Time Machine backups using finder.
Read the following Time Maching FAQ #12, including the gray section at the bottom for the solution to your problem.
see > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 12. Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
Thanks den.thed,
I moved all folders to a new extHD then used disc utility to erase the older ext HD and then played musical chairs until I got all the files on the discs I needed them on.
that seems to have fixed my freezing problems, THANKS!
Now, if I might follow up with a new development. Moving lots of stuff off my internalHD has made things run better. I moved loads of photos, music and art files to a new ext.HD but when I "get info" about my internalHD it doesn't show nearly as much space available as the files removed should have left open.
Additionally, I run MacKeeper regularly and I ran it again after removing all of the above. Weirdly, each time I eliminate more music and photos and recheck "disc usage" it shows more disc space is used for music and photos on my internalHD.
I dragged photos out of the iphoto window into individually labelled folders (by year and subject) on my desktop, then copied them onto the externalHD, then dragged the originals from the desktop to the trash and emptied it. But I'm wondering if if somehow if it is retaining then, because the large amounts of space aren't opening up when I empty the trash.
Thanks again for any help.
First off MacKeeper is considered malware by many here in the forums and you should immediately uninstall it.
see > uninstalling mackeeper (pls help...: Apple Support Communities
Adding that it and most all other cleaning ware is not necessary in OS X.
As for regaining space, moving files to an External Hard Drive in itself does not remove the files from your iMac. All it does, is makes another copy on the External HD and you will need to move those files from your iMac to the trash and then empty the trash. In addition moving files from iPhoto to your desktop also makes a new copy. To remove them from iPhoto, you need to move them from iPhoto to the iPhoto Trash, empty the iPhoto Trash and then empty your iMac's Trash.
Voila!!! 21,000 photos were lurking in the iPhoto trash. I've got half my intHD space opened up now.
Thanks for the help.
Are there any other programs that have to be specifically emptied like iPhoto- instead of the desktop trash?
Much abliged!
Brad
😉
I don't have any others that do.
imac keeps freezing, how to fix?
