iMac is becoming iHell..

[TheRuggedLion]

When I had my MacBook, it took forever to boot, forever to even show the apple logo. What fixed the problem for me was disk utility. I repaired permissions, then I clicked verify disk. It told me there were some errors, so I threw in my os x disc and booted from it by holding "c" at startup. I then went back to disk utility and clicked repair disk. Problem fixed.

Maybe you can give this a shot, let me know how it goes.

 

[bonafide]

Every time I see a thread title with some catastrophic problem, the words "boot" and "camp" always come up.

Exactly...

Everytime!

 

[PlaceofDis]

It might be worth noting that when I first got this machine, I copied the disk image from my laptop so I had all my uni files and personal settings copied over via the settings transfer thing that you get when you first switch on a new mac. Would this have made a difference?

this could very well be your issue.
did you use the migration assistant, or did you just clone it over?

either option has the potential for bugs though. which is why i'd rather set it up myself individually.

it does seem to be a software issue completely. since you do not have an external to back up to, you do have the option of doing an Archive and Install, which should preserve your user folder and re-install the OS. might want to read up on all the specifics to make sure it'll work for you, but seems the best option imo.

 

[M3G4]

Thanks for the info. I doesn't seem to be a memory problem. The amount of RAM you have is good enough. It might perhaps be your HD or what's left of it.

Would you mind answering the next set of questions?

1) I see you have 250GB HD. Under OS X, how much available space do you have left?
2) When you installed Bootcamp, what was the partition size you had set?
3) I have an iMac G5 so I've never played with bootcamp. Does it ask for filesystem type when installing Windows? If so, what did you choose, NTFS or FAT32?
4) Under Windows, what's the HD size available and how much available space you have left?

I think the above post from jamesarm97 may have the fix for you. I'm pretty confident it is how you set up bootcamp to install Windows. See how much time is wasted to get Windows up and running on both PCs and Macs...I couldn't be bothered with MS anymore! Let's get this fixed for you so your iMac will once again be iHeaven!!!

Thanks for your help guys!

Right, well, I got angry with Bootcamp so I wiped it and restored the partition back to OS X so OS X has the whole drive again. Free space is 111.9GB.

I had 40GB or so for windows, and the rest for OS X. It was formatted as FAT32 so OS X could read it.

The thing that confuses me the most is the fact that if this was a problem with software, why can't I replicate it on my macbook very well? There's a delay, but it's not by 1 minute! Both have pretty much the same software installed. The only difference I can think of is that the iMac might have slightly different drivers installed because it's the only mac I installed some of the drivers on to.

 

[Jimmdean]

If this were me, I'd be reloading the OS. If you used the setup assistant you likely brought something over from the previous system that fuzzed things up a little.

 

[dejo]

I had 40GB or so for windows, and the rest for OS X. It was formatted as FAT32 so OS X could read it.

Just an FYI: Mac OS X can read both FAT32 and NTFS. It's for writing that you need FAT32.

P.S. Isn't there a limit of 32GB for a FAT32 partition?

 

[imacdaddy]

Thanks for your help guys!

Right, well, I got angry with Bootcamp so I wiped it and restored the partition back to OS X so OS X has the whole drive again. Free space is 111.9GB.

I had 40GB or so for windows, and the rest for OS X. It was formatted as FAT32 so OS X could read it.

The thing that confuses me the most is the fact that if this was a problem with software, why can't I replicate it on my macbook very well? There's a delay, but it's not by 1 minute! Both have pretty much the same software installed. The only difference I can think of is that the iMac might have slightly different drivers installed because it's the only mac I installed some of the drivers on to.

Is your iMac running fine now without Bootcamp and Winblows? Keep in mind that Bootcamp is still in Beta. But if you say you have 112GB free now and bootcamp+winblows had 40GB allocated, which means you had 72GB left for OS X when you had bc+win installed. Its good to have about 20% of your startup volume left clear for OS X to achieve best performance and avoid disk problems. The capacity of your disk should be 233 GB (Check about this iMac) thus at least 46 GB should be left free. You had 72 GB. Did you go into Disk Utility to Repair and Verify Disk Permissions? You should do this each time you install software or run software updates.

 

[dejo]

Did you go into Disk Utility to Repair and Verify Disk Permissions? You should do this each time you install software or run software updates.

Daring Fireball would disagree.

 

[imacdaddy]

P.S. Isn't there a limit of 32GB for a FAT32 partition?

Yes you are correct!

 

[imacdaddy]

Daring Fireball would disagree.

Thanks for that. Quite interesting.

 

[dejo]

Thanks for that. Quite interesting.

It is, isn't it? And since the OP is experiencing problems, repairing permissions is suggested.

 

[M3G4]

Tried repairing permissions till the cows come home, but to me it looks a bit like windows defragmenter... sounds cool, but does sod all in the grand scheme of things.

Boot camp is long gone, but the computer was exhibiting these problems both BEFORE and AFTER boot camp was installed.

Tomorrow I might try backing up my user folder to my (extremely slow on macs..) USB2 hard drive and doing a reinstall - but I'd like to avoid it really!!

 

[M3G4]

Well, as soon as I get the money to get a firewire hard drive, I think I'm going to chuck this pile of crap in the dumpster. It's annoying me now.

 

[oduinnin]

Cheers guys

... It might be worth noting that when I first got this machine, I copied the disk image from my laptop so I had all my uni files and personal settings copied over via the settings transfer thing that you get when you first switch on a new mac. Would this have made a difference?

When you say you "copied the disk image from my laptop", do you mean you made a copy of the entire disk, including OS X system files? Because if you did, and replaced the version of OS X on your iMac, that may very well be your problem. I can't be specific on the differences, but, there ARE differences in some of the files.

If this is the case, do an archive and install using the OS X system disk that came with your iMac. After you reinstall OS X, you can copy any files you need or want from the archive folder. Once you are satisfied that you have all your files and everything is running right, delete the archive.

Try not to get frustrated. If this or other advice doesn't make things better, I suggest you give Apple service a try.

Good Luck!

 

[daneoni]

I always reformat, mainly to remove any unnecessary applications (e.g. Microsoft Word Trial), Languages (other than English and Spanish) and printer drivers.

Why have things installed if you do not need them.

Ditto. I ALWAYS do this before even reaching the registration screen on all my machines and save a lot of GBs as well as create a leaner system containing only the stuff i want.

This is also one of the reasons i hated buying Sony Vaios and preferred HPs/Dell/IBM when i was still using PCs. Sony would rather not give you restore disks and if they do there is no option to uncheck their crappware like sonicstage, movie maker etc

As for the OP, if i were you i'd boot from the CD and verify the disk as well as run fsck and if those don't help i'd do a clean install. If those don't help i'd be making the magic call to AppleCare or making a genius appointment

 

[heswa]

Yes you are correct!

Incorrect. With FAT32, there is a partition limit of about 2TB, and a single file limit of 4GB. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT32#FAT32

It was the older FAT12 that had a 32GB partition limit.

 

[dejo]

Incorrect. With FAT32, there is a partition limit of about 2TB, and a single file limit of 4GB.

True, but according to Microsoft, "You cannot format a volume larger than 32 gigabytes (GB) in size using the FAT32 file system during the Windows XP installation process."

I guess my question is: what it the size limit of a FAT32 partition using the Boot Camp Assistant? Anyone?

It was the older FAT12 that had a 32GB partition limit.

FAT12 had a 32MB limit.

 

[ReanimationLP]

Incorrect. With FAT32, there is a partition limit of about 2TB, and a single file limit of 4GB. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT32#FAT32

It was the older FAT12 that had a 32GB partition limit.

You're true, but so is Dojo.

Windows XP will only let you format up to a 32GB partition as FAT32.

If you want to format a large drive as FAT32, you need to use an older version of Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. Windows Vista doesnt even let you make FAT32 partitions that the OS resides on.