G4 crashed what do i do?!!!!!!

[markjones05]

Okay so last night i go into classic and it freezes. I turn my computer off manually and when i start it up again i have a folder with a blinking questionmark. I know this is bad because its happened to me b4. So i do a disk repair and it says something about overlapping files in red. I call applecare the next morning and he tells me i have to erase an reinstall everything. But I dont. Instead i reinstall and select the option that puts all the files into a system folder. When the second disc completed installation i restarted my computer and logged in as my usal user name and everything is fine. Even my folders are arranged the same way as when i left them on the desktop. My question is did i fix the problem or only temporarily bypass it? I have backed up all my files now so at least that is good. But will my computer eventually crash again due to the fact that i did a dirty reinstall? What do you all suggest?

 

[patrick0brien]

-markjones05

One word: DiskWarrior

I've foobed my machines a few times (I'm nuts) and sometimes I'll get an overlap - or 30, but then I whip out my trusty lifesaver, DiskWarrior, and all is good again.

One thing to note however, the overlaps I cause were my fault by messing with something (usually beating up on Bluetooth), your overlaps sound a bit more random.

How old is your disk?

 

[AmigoMac]

? at start up...

I had that problem b4 as well... it went off since I reset the power management unit or something like this...

ctrl+option+shift and power button for a while (of course the mac has to be off before this)

then turn your machine on and hope it will work ..

 

[markjones05]

Originally posted by patrick0brien
-markjones05

One word: DiskWarrior

I've foobed my machines a few times (I'm nuts) and sometimes I'll get an overlap - or 30, but then I whip out my trusty lifesaver, DiskWarrior, and all is good again.

One thing to note however, the overlaps I cause were my fault by messing with something (usually beating up on Bluetooth), your overlaps sound a bit more random.

How old is your disk?

I bought the computer last October so its comming up on one year.

 

[patrick0brien]

Originally posted by markjones05
I bought the computer last October so its comming up on one year.

-markjones05

I ask because an ages disk might do this more often than not.

Other questions to research are:

1. How much RAM do you have? If you on't have enough to accomodate what you are doing, OS X will go into Virtual Memory to make up the difference, e.g. disk space as RAM, and age your HD faster than healthy.

2. How often do you defrag/optimize (if you do it at all)? Do this only when necessary as this ages your machine during the operation like virtual memory does. Of course, a highly fragged HD does as well. There is a threshold of the benefits of an optimization ourweighs the aging it causes - usually at 10% or so.

3. Do you partition you physical drive? A physical drive partitioned to two logical partitions increase the aging factor by 2x. Three partitions 3x, etc.

What is meant, technically, by the word "aging" is the aging of the components that will wear out on an HD. The armiture is the arm that actually interfaces with the magnetic layer of the platter for read/write functions. The bearings of the armiture are designed to wear first, and gradually. This causes the armiture's flexibility to decrease over time, and as it dies, it will have difficulty reaching the outer (most likely to be unwritten) tracks of the HD, thusly giving you warning and time to back up.

The more skipping about you make the armiture do, the sooner those bearings will begin to fail. Virtual memory, optimizing/defragging, and fragmentation are key guilty parties to this effect.

 

[markjones05]

Originally posted by patrick0brien
-markjones05

I ask because an ages disk might do this more often than not.

Other questions to research are:

1. How much RAM do you have? If you on't have enough to accomodate what you are doing, OS X will go into Virtual Memory to make up the difference, e.g. disk space as RAM, and age your HD faster than healthy.

2. How often do you defrag/optimize (if you do it at all)? Do this only when necessary as this ages your machine during the operation like virtual memory does. Of course, a highly fragged HD does as well. There is a threshold of the benefits of an optimization ourweighs the aging it causes - usually at 10% or so.

3. Do you partition you physical drive? A physical drive partitioned to two logical partitions increase the aging factor by 2x. Three partitions 3x, etc.

What is meant, technically, by the word "aging" is the aging of the components that will wear out on an HD. The armiture is the arm that actually interfaces with the magnetic layer of the platter for read/write functions. The bearings of the armiture are designed to wear first, and gradually. This causes the armiture's flexibility to decrease over time, and as it dies, it will have difficulty reaching the outer (most likely to be unwritten) tracks of the HD, thusly giving you warning and time to back up.

The more skipping about you make the armiture do, the sooner those bearings will begin to fail. Virtual memory, optimizing/defragging, and fragmentation are key guilty parties to this effect.

Woah, first id like to tahnk you for explaining yourself so completely. I wouldnt have understood your questions otherwise. I have 512mb of ram and have never partitioned or optimized my machine. I do have a 120 gig external firewire drive that i use for my editing projects and that i have now backed everything up on to. I really want to resolve this problem without erasing everything and reinstalling. And if i have to buy disk warrior to do so i most certainly will. I thank everyone for thier feedback and if anyone else has any ideas on what went wrong here or what my next step should be in solving this please let me know. Like i said i did a dirty re-install and it just brought me back to my desktop as if nothing had happened. The only wierd thing is that i cant open safari. The man at applecare said that overlapping was caused from me having two files named the same thing on my hard drive and the paths may have gotten mixed up or something like that. I think that is kinda rediculous. Your entire computer crashes just from having a file labelled the same name in two different locations??

 

[patrick0brien]

Originally posted by markjones05
I think that is kinda rediculous. Your entire computer crashes just from having a file labelled the same name in two different locations??

-markjones05

Well, only critical system files.

DiskWarrior is always a good investment. Period.

As for your specific problem, if you start seeing it again, I'd do a system restore via your install disks.

(Boy, my spelling sucks today)

 

[markjones05]

Since this happened whenever i startup my computer it goes to the login screen. How do i set it so that it automatically logs in to my account at start up?

 

[patrick0brien]

-markjones05

System Preferences/Accounts/"Set Auto Login..."/<enter password>

A checked checkbox will appear at the base of the Accounts Pane to the wording of "Log in automatically as <username>"

Personally, I've disabled autologin on all my OS X machines and XP machines as I use it as one further layer of security. Though on the OS X machines I logout, and sleep them (never turning them off), but on XP I actually turn it off (Standby is flakey).