Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Macintosh software/hardware discussion and troubleshooting

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amplidood
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Re: Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Post by amplidood »

On all my systems and every custom install I do for others, I always create a 20-30GB partition and call it Repair HD. It gets a stripped down install of OS X, and I have them buy a copy of DiskWarrior to keep on it. Even to run Disk Utility properly you should be booted from somewhere else, yes. This setup has saved my butt soooo many times, and those I do it for. They can't believe Apple doesn't do this by default. It makes troubleshooting and maintenance so freaking easyl
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cuttime
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Re: Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Post by cuttime »

FMiguelez wrote:.

Guys, I've found contradicting information about the Repair Disk routine (fsck).

It is always said you need to either, boot from your installation DVD or in Single User mode to use it.

What I want to know is, can I simply boot from another volume (a clone of the main system in a different HD) and run it from there safely?
I read that was not recommended, but I don't see why not, and I don't think I trust the source of that info...

Thanks!
Is this your source?

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20 ... ncol;title

Personally, I would trust it.
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FMiguelez
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Re: Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Post by FMiguelez »

.

Actually, CutTime, that link just confirmed my suspicions: that it is perfectly OK to run the Repair Disk utility from a different volume.

I was not certain of this because most sites only mention doing it by booting from the installation DVD or using Single Mode. And I found one that actually recommended NOT doing it from another volume (which now I know that claim is unsupported and wrong).

Thank you for the link, and Andy for confirming what I thought is OK to do.
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mikehalloran
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Re: Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Post by mikehalloran »

amplidood wrote:On all my systems and every custom install I do for others, I always create a 20-30GB partition and call it Repair HD. It gets a stripped down install of OS X, and I have them buy a copy of DiskWarrior to keep on it. Even to run Disk Utility properly you should be booted from somewhere else, yes. This setup has saved my butt soooo many times, and those I do it for. They can't believe Apple doesn't do this by default. It makes troubleshooting and maintenance so freaking easyl
Absolutely. I make the partition in TechTool unless I have my Time Machine drive connected directly - then I put the partition on it. I keep TT, Disk Utility and Disk Warrior on the partition.

I have never actually fixed anything with TechTool or Disk Warrior but I understand it can be done. They are very good diagnostic tools, however, and I find them useful. Disk Utility does repair things on occasion.
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Re: Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Post by mikehalloran »

Apple released another Java upgrade for Lion yesterday. With the 4/3/2012 release, my track pad was too jumpy to use in a browser and I went back to my track ball - still jittery but I could get my work done. That has been fixed.
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adrake
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Re: Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Post by adrake »

I think that troubleshooting your Mac can be done easily. There are not much components that need to be checked as you can pretty much see everything with the use of built in tools.

It does not act like the device manager of the windows OS as they have clearly defined each component and what it is going to do unlike on a win7, you would need to be able to present the proper drivers to go with it.
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Re: Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Post by daniel.sneed »

My two cents:
Create a clone of the main partition on an external FW HD, with SuperDuper.
- Can be used to repair anything on the main partition
- Can boot just like the main partition in case of HD wreck, specially when on a deadline.
Saved my day many times.
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Thomas.B.
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Re: Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Post by Thomas.B. »

Creating a clone with SuperDuper used to be my preferred method of maintenance and backup. OS X 10.9, however, installs a second partition for maintenance by default which you will have to use if you encrypt your entire hard drive with FileVault 2. I still prefer the SuperDuper method but have gotten used to using Time Machine for backups which makes it a breeze to transfer your existing data to a new virgin install of OS X whenever a new OS X version is released.
Hanka
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Re: Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Post by Hanka »

sdemott wrote:Because there seems to be a good deal of confusion and misinformation about basic Mac troubleshooting I thought I would try to shed some light on this often obfuscated process.

Why trust me? I used my first Mac in September of 1984...and those who remember that first Mac know you had to "fly solo" when it came to problems. Because of my early adoption I became the "go to guy" for all my Mac using friends over the next several years. Then when word had spread enough and I was getting enough calls from people who heard about me "from a friend of a friend of a friend" I went into the consulting thing as a paid profession (in 1992). I had Apple certification all through the '90s, up until about 2003 when it was obvious that the yearly testing fees were growing to be more in the MS territory. I worked as a full-time IT guy in a marketing/ad agency for a few years. These days I primarily keep my consulting & web design to musicians, artists and related institutions so I can spend time writing & recording music.

The Simple Stuff

Repair Permissions
There is a lot of confusion & misinformation about this simple maintenance procedure. Here's the real deal. When you repair permissions a comparison is made between an installs current state and the requested state from its install receipt. When they differ, they are changed to reflect the requested state.

In theory any installer that places a receipt in the proper place with all the proper user/permissions information can be repaired with a "Repair Permission" run. The unfortunate side effect is that companies tend to be reluctant to create a proper install package and usually forgo the extra work to include this information.

Receipts are stored in: /Library/Receipts/

When should you repair permissions? Anytime and every time you do any install or modification that requires you to enter your password. By the simple fact that an administrator's password is being asked for you are being warned that your file system is being altered. Always be sure to Repair Permissions to insure the filesystem is in its proper state after these tasks.

Preferences
From the early days of the Mac up to now there has been a common thread in troubleshooting - preferences corrupt themselves on a regular basis. To this day, I would say that about 90% of Mac oddities can be linked to a corrupt preference file.

The first step in troubleshooting an issue where something suddenly begins acting weird, or applications suddenly become unstable, should be deleting all related preference files. Keep in mind you will need to reset your application preferences after deleting preference files because they will revert to their default settings. But this is only for the application for which you removed the preference files.

Also, if you have the issue where you login and the login window hangs or the desktop hangs as the account first comes up, you most likely have corrupt LoginWindow.plist & LaunchServices.plist files. Check both preference locations for these files, delete & reboot.

Preferences are stored in: ~/Library/Preferences/ (user specific settings) & /Library/Preferences/ (system specific settings)

Advanced Stuff

Non-Volitile RAM (NVRAM)/Parameter RAM (PRAM)
When something goes wrong with these you will get power issues (systems that sleep without warning or won't wake from sleep), odd keyboard & mouse behavior or even odd display (on screen) anomalies.

You can reset the NVRAM/PRAM 2 ways:
Restart the system and hold down the cmd-opt-p-r keys until you hear 3 startup chimes. Release the keys after the 3rd chime and you will startup normally.

Restart the system and hold down the cmd-opt-o-f keys. When you see text come up on the screen welcoming you to Open Firmware release they keys. You will be at a text prompt (a ">" sign). Type the following:
>reset-nvram (pressing return will result in an "ok")
>set-defaults (again, press return for the "ok")
>reset-all (pressing return will reboot the system)

This only works on "New World ROM" PPC machines (G3s and better) and will not work on the new Intel Macs.

FileSystemCheck (fsck)
When things go really wrong you will want to check your hard drive for damage. You can boot from you Mac OSX install disk and run Disk Utility > check disk, but that always seemed like a good deal of extra work to me (because I'd have to find the CD and wait through a boot from the system on the CD - which always seems like it takes 100 years to complete). Instead, you can accomplish the exact same thing by dropping into Single User Mode and running a FileSystemCheck. The Disk Utility > check disk is a GUI for the fsck command.

Reboot and hold down cmd-s
Release when you see text appear on the screen with some gobbledy-gook about timeslicing, IODevice, the regents of the University of California at Berkeley and "the filesystem is mounted read only, fsck not done". You will find yourself at a command prompt (a ">" sign).
Type:
>fsck -fy (hit return & wait)
The system will check itself giving you a "play by play" of what's being done and if it has found any errors. If it does find errors it will warn you and then attempt to repair them.
Keep running the "fsck -fy" until you get the "disk seems to be ok" message.
After the "ok" message type:
>reboot
to boot back into the normal OS.

Standard Disclaimer
In closing, remember that you do not have to be comfortable with the tech end of a computer to use one for your day to day work. It is never a bad thing to develop a relationship with a local Mac consultant who understands the idiosyncrasies of a DAW setup. Many of them are musicians too and may even barter their services for some recording time. Playing around in Open Firmware and Single User Mode can be dangerous, and if something unexpected happens you can do serious/irrepearable damage to your system or files. Just because I am revealing these troubleshooting secrets does not mean I take any responsibility for their use or any damage they may cause to your system or data. Follow these instructions at your own risk.

You have been warned (and, hopefully, enlightened). :-)
I recently got a mac-book air from my friend and have had issues with trouble shooting, such through forums and am glad i found this, thanks a bunch for the information above, it might be 10yrs down the line but i believe it will be helpful!
johnsmith101
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Re: Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Post by johnsmith101 »

HELLO GUYS,

I cannot emphasize how much using DiskWarrior belongs on this flowchart.

Seriously, Apple should license the technology and put it on the Recovery Partition. Invalid Volume Information is my number one fix for misbehaving Macs.


REGARDS
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mikehalloran
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Re: Mac Troubleshooting Advice

Post by mikehalloran »

johnsmith101 wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 8:55 am HELLO GUYS,

I cannot emphasize how much using DiskWarrior belongs on this flowchart.

Seriously, Apple should license the technology and put it on the Recovery Partition. Invalid Volume Information is my number one fix for misbehaving Macs.


REGARDS
Ok, I cannot emphasize how useless DiskWarrior is. It does absolutely nothing except fix purposely corrupted directories in reviews—nor does it claim to. It cannot recover data and never could. The MacOS repairs directories on its own since OS 10.5. All of the other “problems” it finds are not.

In addition, DiskWarrior does not support APFS, Apple’s file system since MacOS 13.6. It cannot fix any problems with SSDs. Period. The only external drives it can “rebuild” (directory only) are HDDs not formatted APFS, Since Monterey, those no longer exist, even Time Machine. Read all about it.
https://www.alsoft.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA ... NEEALw_wcB

I used to use it as a diagnostic tool and it was pretty good—canary in a coal mine as it were but that was with HDDs. It helped me find problems but never actually fixed anything, not once, not ever. SSDs don’t work the way that HDDs do.
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