Repairing Permissions?

[bradc]

Since switching over a year ago, I've been exceptionally pleased with the performance of my Powermac G5. However, lately things seem to be getting slower and slower-especially booting up. So I went to Disk Utility and Verified and Repaired permissions. It had a whole lot of things to fix, mainly in my printer software and Flash.

So, I asked myself...what the hell is it doing? I've realized I take so much for granted...this being my work machine. So what are permissions?-Sort of like Windows Registry?

Second, I really don't want to lose my hard drive, I have a bunch of external hard drives I can back up to but, being a noob at Apple ways. What's the best way to backup? What program to use? I want to upgrade from 10.3.9 to 10.4.x so what other steps should I take?

Any more comments are appreciated regardless of what it concerns, as long as it might help me or give me a different opinion!

Lets hear it, give me the lowdown!

 

[iGary]

Since switching over a year ago, I've been exceptionally pleased with the performance of my Powermac G5. However, lately things seem to be getting slower and slower-especially booting up. So I went to Disk Utility and Verified and Repaired permissions. It had a whole lot of things to fix, mainly in my printer software and Flash.

So, I asked myself...what the hell is it doing? I've realized I take so much for granted...this being my work machine. So what are permissions?-Sort of like Windows Registry?

Second, I really don't want to lose my hard drive, I have a bunch of external hard drives I can back up to but, being a noob at Apple ways. What's the best way to backup? What program to use? I want to upgrade from 10.3.9 to 10.4.x so what other steps should I take?

Any more comments are appreciated regardless of what it concerns, as long as it might help me or give me a different opinion!

Lets hear it, give me the lowdown!

Super Duper! is super duper for backups.

I'll let one of the UNIX geeks comment on your permissions question.

 

[UKnjb]

So, I asked myself...what the hell is it doing? I've realized I take so much for granted...this being my work machine. So what are permissions?-Sort of like Windows Registry?

Any more comments are appreciated regardless of what it concerns, as long as it might help me or give me a different opinion!

Lets hear it, give me the lowdown!

I would suggest that you put your Windows analogies behind you!

Permissions is a term that relates to ownership of files or folders; it is part of the UNIX base of Mac OS. Ownership of files or folders gives read, write and execution permissions that is flagged within the files or folders. You can get some idea of what these are by highlighting a file/folder in Finder and going to File>Get Info and then examining the Ownership and permissions tab. Permissions for the Owner, Group etc will be defined and reflect the state of the flags that are set. Everything really follows on from that; during multiple disk read/write operations, the flags on the files can become altered and need repairing.

Enter Disk Utilities to do this for you. Good Advice 1: Run Repair Permissions on a regular basis (once or twice a month) as a routine and, in any event, after the installation of any new app. Each and every file in the system is examined and has its premissions checked and re-set correctly if necessary. You can run Disk Utility at any time, although there are some that think it a good idea (never understood it myself) to boot from your installation Disk (Command + C at start-up) and run Disk Utility/repair permissions from there on a montly basis.

There are alternatives to Disk Repair, including the 'parent' of Disk Utility's Repair permisssions, FSCK (run in terminal mode).

Your best entry point is to stay in Macrumors and go to this link for how to do a suite of basic maintenance procedures you need, including Repairing Permissions.

Cannot comment on Tiger as I am still on Panther 10.3.9

Good luck with your backup.

 

[WildCowboy]

You can run Disk Utility at any time, although there are some that think it a good idea (never understood it myself) to boot from your installation Disk (Command + C at start-up) and run Disk Utility/repair permissions from there on a montly basis.

You should NOT repair permissions while booted from the CD. Repairing permissions compares the actual permissions for files to your Bill of Materials in your receipts. In many cases, the files on the CD are out of date, and more accurate permissions are recorded in the receipts located on your hard drive.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Agreed, but no need to reboot to the install CD or DVD to repair permissions. This routine can be run from Disk Utility on the startup drive, and of course fsck can be run in single-user mode.

I also highly recommend AppleJack. It's the Swiss Army Knife of Mac utilities. Once a month or so, reboot into Single User Mode, type "applejack" at the prompt and follow the instructions for running all the diagnostics and repairs. Reboot, and you're done until next time!

 

[GimmeSlack12]

And if anyone ever asks you a question that you don't know the answer to. Just ask them: "Have you repaired Permissions? Cause you should do that."

I find that this is the answer to 50% of questions asked here. Kinda funny there isn't a sticky saying "Before you ask anything, repair Permissions".

 

[bradc]

Ahhh sweet! Thanks guys for all your input so far I'll look into Applejack. I have access to Techtool Pro...any good? But I still need some info upgrading to Tiger, I think...I'll go searching again. There's a billion articles on these forums to search through.

Yeah I agree, a sticky on repair permissions, thats the one answer I kept on getting when searching.

 

[IJ Reilly]

You don't need TechTool, or any similar commercial utility, for regular maintenance. They are for "when all else fails" situations, such as hard disk damage that can't be repaired by ordinary means (and for that, I personally recommend DiskWarrior).