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Overloaded Desktop

CommonMan

CommonMan

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2006
140
0
Midwest
Big Problem. Mac is spinning it's wheels - the beach ball just spins everytime I try to do anything. This happened after I mistakingly moved about 1 Gb of files to the desk top. So, I think this overloaded the RAM or something. I can't move or delete the files off the desktop because everytime I even try to move the mouse, the beachball just starts turning. Basically, it's frozen. I'm now using my PC since the Mac is out of commission.:(

One friend suggested I boot to the hard drive from a disk but that's too complicated for me: I would have to then do DOS like commands to rectify the situation. Besides, if I booted to the HD, would I not just activate the OS and the problem would start all over. My wife is mad for sure because she liked the MAC and now, we may be back to a PC for a while.
 
Try avoiding the GUI.

Open Terminal.app and type in the following commands:

Code: 
cd ~/Desktop
mkdir Folder
mv * Folder/

This should take all the files on your desktop and move them to a new folder on the Desktop called "Folder".

Alternatively, you might try logging in under a different username, particularly if you have a separate admin account from your main user account.

B
 
balamw said:
Try avoiding the GUI.

What is GUI? What does it stand for?

Open Terminal.app and type in the following commands

How do I open Terminal.app? Do I do this by booting up from a disk?



Code: 
cd ~/Desktop
mkdir Folder
mv * Folder/

Writing code is pretty scarey for me. But I might try it if I know if I'm in the right place.

This should take all the files on your desktop and move them to a new folder on the Desktop called "Folder".

Alternatively, you might try logging in under a different username, particularly if you have a separate admin account from your main user account.

B
Click to expand...

Thanks
 
GUI = Graphical User Interface. It is the stuff you see when you use the computer visually e.g. selecting files with the mouse, dragging and dropping etc.

Terminal.app is one of the applications installed on the computer by default. Go to Applications -> Utilities and select Terminal.
 
applications

I would try going to applications, etc. but the computer won't allow me to do anything. Any mouse click or entry by keyboard just results in the spinning beach ball. Also, how can I avoid the Graphic User Interface? Is there some way of booting up the computer so I can do what you recommend?
 
Have you tried relaunching the finder? (option+apple+escape to get to force quit window) Or just restarting the system manually?
 
I was able to get into the "non graphic interface mode" by holding down Command –S while booting. I then typed in the commands (Unix?) that you recommended.

This did not work as I got responses like "no such directory exists." I'm afraid I'm over my head on this.

The only thing I was successful at was getting a "blank prompt" or >.

There was something coming up at the prompt that made no sense to me. I put in something like C:\ and then got what I would call a blank prompt.

I might be able to get something to work if this was a PC and I had to write DOS commands. But, I've only had a Mac for a short time. I guess one thing I learned by this whole experience is that Unix is analogous to dos?

I would need a guide so I can work in this non-graphic mode. Can anyone direct me to such a guide?
 
CommonMan said:
I was able to get into the "non graphic interface mode" by holding down Command –S while booting. I then typed in the commands (Unix?) that you recommended.
Click to expand...

You have to mount the file system as writable first. And the invoked shell in Single User Mode doesn't know who ~ is. But to accomplish this you need to know what your short username is.

Boot in Single User Mode, then:

mount -uw /
cd /Users
ls
(ls will list the contents of the /Users directory, in it will be the short username of your account, which you should be able to easily identify, continue...)
cd shortusername/Desktop
(where "shortusername" is the short username of your account, continue...)
mkdir MovedJunk
mv * MovedJunk
(ignore the error, wait until the prompt comes back, continue...)
reboot

Now you should be able to get back to normal. Everything will be moved to a folder called MovedJunk on your Desktop.

FYI, DOS is similar to UNIX, as UNIX is significantly older.

Here is a tutorial for the Darwin portion of OS X:

http://osxfaq.com/Tutorials/LearningCenter/index.ws
 
Does anybody think going into the command line might be overkill for this problem? Have you tried other basic steps first? (ie shutting it off and just booting it?)
 
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decksnap said:
Does anybody think going into the command line might be overkill for this problem? Have you tried other basic steps first? (ie shutting it off and just booting it?)
Click to expand...

Ah the favorite Windows troubleshooting method! I don't know what the problem is or how to fix it, but let's see if rebooting does the trick.

Anyhow, I loves me some overkill. Keeps problems dead. ;)

B
 
:)

But seriously.. it might just be a runaway finder that needs to be relaunched. And if he can't get to Activity Monitor or force quit, might as well just force restart. I've never had to hit up the command line in all my years on macs. This idea of moving all the files to another folder seems odd to me, since the desktop is just a folder itself.
 
decksnap said:
:)

But seriously.. it might just be a runaway finder that needs to be relaunched. And if he can't get to Activity Monitor or force quit, might as well just force restart. I've never had to hit up the command line in all my years on macs. This idea of moving all the files to another folder seems odd to me, since the desktop is just a folder itself.
Click to expand...

;) Ah, perhaps it's that you don't know one of Finder's dirty little secrets....

Each item (icon) on the desktop is treated as a separate window and thus if you put lots of files (size doesn't matter, only number) on the desktop Finder can easily go gaga. Coalescing them all into a single folder would eliminate the plethora of windows Finder has to deal with and should allow you to regain control. (Unless something else is wrong with it of course.)

B
 
If the problem persists as long as the Finder is open, as I suspect is the case (I've accidentally dumped lots of files on the Desktop too, it's not fun), a restart won't matter. Luckily if you force quit the Finder everything else should still function. It's too bad the OP doesn't have Tiger or they could easily use Spotlight to launch the Terminal and run the commands balamw suggested.

Perhaps the simplest non-CLI method would be to open System Preferences and create a new Admin user account. Logging in with this new account you could navigate to the other user's Desktop folder, give yourself the proper permissions, and dump all the files into a new folder.
 
apfhex said:
Perhaps the simplest non-CLI method would be to open System Preferences and create a new Admin user account. Logging in with this new account you could navigate to the other user's Desktop folder, give yourself the proper permissions, and dump all the files into a new folder.
Click to expand...

I did suggest using an alternate account in the first response. ;) Doesn't sound like the system is responsive enough to be able to create one at this point though....

IMHO you should always create an alternate/failsafe/backup account on every computer... Makes recovery far easier when user settings get b0rked up.

B
 
balamw said:
I did suggest using an alternate account in the first response. ;) Doesn't sound like the system is responsive enough to be able to create one at this point though....
Click to expand...
Oops, yeah. :D But still, this is a Finder issue, so I assume that if the Finder is ignored or Force Quit the rest of the system can still be used like normal, including System Preferences and logging out. If that's not the case and the whole system is unresponsive, then I'm not sure how easy this would be.

Best case scenario would be 1) no auto-login and 2) existing alternate user account.
 
balamw said:
;) Ah, perhaps it's that you don't know one of Finder's dirty little secrets....

B
Click to expand...

No, I didn't know that. I have literally 100+ files on my desktop. Maybe I should clean up around here.

But- maybe an archive and install off the OS X disk be a 'novice user' way out of this problem?
 
decksnap said:
No, I didn't know that. I have literally 100+ files on my desktop. Maybe I should clean up around here.
Click to expand...

Multiple that by 10 and you start getting Finder slowness.

decksnap said:
But- maybe an archive and install off the OS X disk be a 'novice user' way out of this problem?
Click to expand...

No, I think it's much harder for a n00b to recover from a complete A&I (no user data saved), as they won't have a clue what to move back to their new install.
 
To Yellow

Yellow, I think your solution may work. But, it may be too late. I took the G3 into a shop where the guys there said the only thing they could do was to re-load OS-10.3. Of course this is not good for the obvious reason that everything no backed up on the external HD will be lost.

In addition, writting these commands you recommend is maybe beyond my pea brain. I think I could do it but if anything happens that is not exactly the way you planned, I would be lost.

What is "the Darwin portion of OS X?" Is this the code you are using?
 
CommonMan said:
Yellow, I think your solution may work. But, it may be too late. I took the G3 into a shop where the guys there said the only thing they could do was to re-load OS-10.3. Of course this is not good for the obvious reason that everything no backed up on the external HD will be lost.

In addition, writting these commands you recommend is maybe beyond my pea brain. I think I could do it but if anything happens that is not exactly the way you planned, I would be lost.

What is "the Darwin portion of OS X?" Is this the code you are using?
Click to expand...

Like I posted above, just have these guys help you reinstall. You won't lose any of your stuff. Ask them to do an 'archive and install', then have them help you move all your stuff from the archived version into your new, clean OS. It will be simple for them to do.
 
Wow

I'm going to kill some trees and print all this out. In the time since I've posted the original thread, I took the G3 into a shop. The guys there only offered to solve the problem by re-loading the operating system. I first thought "whatever" and told them Okay. Then, I got my mind back and thought, "why am I putting any money into this thing. The processor is a dinasour. I'd be better off just putting the money towards a G4 (which I later did). So, I called these jokers up and was unable to get a hold of them so I left a message. About a week later, I went by to talk to them since I was unable to reach them by phone. The guy told me he was unable to re-load the operating system and they thought it must be a hardware problem, most likely in the memory. I told them i did not understand this coincidence since the problem originated when I dumped too many files onto the desk top. That's when the computer froze up.
I paid them $40 and got the computer back and it's now sitting in my basement. I'm writing this on my new G4, which, so far (knock on wood) works great!
But, I just wanted to report in and say thanks to all of you who contributed to this thread. When I have some time, I may apply some of the solutions and try to get the G3 running again. Until then, I must review this thread and think things over. In any case, happy new year! It has snowed here and is very slick out so we are just staying in and watching movies.
 
I just want to add a solution that worked for me when I inadvertently moved 1346 jpgs to my finder and froze it.

If you have a second computer or someone who can connect to the frozen desktop from another computer, do so. For some reason the networked computer can view the 1st computers frozen desktop, including the moved 1346 - in my case - files (in list form is best). You can then make a new folder on the 1st computers desktop, move all files and then restart the 1st frozen comp. Worked for me! Whew!
 
balamw said:
Try avoiding the GUI.

Open Terminal.app and type in the following commands:

Code: 
cd ~/Desktop
mkdir Folder
mv * Folder/

This should take all the files on your desktop and move them to a new folder on the Desktop called "Folder".

Alternatively, you might try logging in under a different username, particularly if you have a separate admin account from your main user account.

B
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1531420253][/doublepost]I did the same thing - accidentally dropped a couple thousand .dng files onto my desk top. I entered terminal mode and used the code below to move the files into a folder, but received the error that the "argument was too long". Any way to overcome this?

Many Thanks,


balamw said:
Try avoiding the GUI.

Open Terminal.app and type in the following commands:

Code: 
cd ~/Desktop
mkdir Folder
mv * Folder/

This should take all the files on your desktop and move them to a new folder on the Desktop called "Folder".

Alternatively, you might try logging in under a different username, particularly if you have a separate admin account from your main user account.

B
Click to expand...
 
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