iMAC problem

[oldcro]

I've done something to my iMac and now have a problem opening some programmes.

For example:
When I try to open iTunes all I get is a warning saying "iTunes quit unexpectedly" with the option to reopen, but every time I select reopen it just brings up the same warning. Final Cut Express and iPhoto are also affected by the way.

What have I done wrong, and how do I get things back to normal?

I did re-install my OS X Snow Leopard and that enabled Safari to start again, but downloading itunes again did not help.

Hope someone with MAC experience can help me sort out whatever it is I've done to screw up the imac.

Thanks.

 

[Sonny Burnett]

this smells to the rafters of a windows xp home basic problem...

 

[oldcro]

Problem fixed

Thanks for the reply, but it was nothing to do with Windows XP. I have managed to sort it out though. A check for updates found the OS needed updating, so after a 772mb update taking 4 hours the iMac is back to normal.:bannana:

 

[219]

Glad you got it sorted .

In cases like this , and if all else fails , Time Machine can be invaluable . I have found , on a couple of occasions , after making some change or another , that if something no longer works it is easy to go back in Time Machine and restore to the state before the change .

Works a treat .

 

[unit504]

sometimes it can help, if you find and dump the preference files from the affected programs.

 

[oldcro]

Glad you got it sorted .

In cases like this , and if all else fails , Time Machine can be invaluable . I have found , on a couple of occasions , after making some change or another , that if something no longer works it is easy to go back in Time Machine and restore to the state before the change .

Works a treat .

A correct and sensible suggestion Pontoneer, except when you do stupid things like me.

It all started when feeling bored I decided as everything was working properly I would erase the backup USB drive, and start the backup from fresh. I did not think it would have any affect on the OS installed on the internal hard disk but it obviously did.

So now Time Machine has everything backed up from yesterday on and the iMac works fine again.

Moral is stop fiddling and leave well alone in future.

 

[219]

I too tend to be of the 'If it ain't broke ...... ' philosophy .

It is possible to go into your Time Machine drive and you will see that it contains folders of backups arranged chronologically - it is easy enough to delete all but a couple of the most recent ones . After a certain point , the oldest ones get overwritten anyway .

 

[Middletone]

Stay away from iTunes 9.1. : lots of bugs !

 

[spinaltap]

Good housekeeping on your Macintosh will benefit from periodically repairing disk permissions - especially after installing or updating software.

For this, select Go from the top menu > utilities > disk utility.

Choose your hard drive from left-hand side menu, then click 'repair disk permissions'.

 

[oldcro]

I too tend to be of the 'If it ain't broke ...... ' philosophy .

It is possible to go into your Time Machine drive and you will see that it contains folders of backups arranged chronologically - it is easy enough to delete all but a couple of the most recent ones . After a certain point , the oldest ones get overwritten anyway .

I have done this previously, deleting old files I would never need again with no problems. However this time I deleted everything including those that brought up a warning not to. Trouble is once in a deleting mood it's very hard to stop.

 

[oldcro]

Stay away from iTunes 9.1. : lots of bugs !

Thanks for that, a quick check and my iTunes is 9.2.1 (5) so hope it is bug free.

 

[oldcro]

Good housekeeping on your Macintosh will benefit from periodically repairing disk permissions - especially after installing or updating software.

For this, select Go from the top menu > utilities > disk utility.

Choose your hard drive from left-hand side menu, then click 'repair disk permissions'.

Thanks spinaltap.

Just did that and had pages of permissions repaired. There were two that it could not repair after a few attempts. One was listed as System/library/framework should be Irwxr-xr-x not Irw-r--r-- and the other was very similar.

As I've no idea what these permissions mean I decided to leave well alone until the next crash.

 

[crockers]

I bought a 1.5TB external HD which I use solely as my time machine. It's on all the time and backs up every hour. I reckon that I won't have to delete a thing in it as it is big enough and more for all my files now and in the future as my iMac is only 1TB.

Good investment of £80