On 09/08/2005 at 17:24, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Roger Houghton) wrote: > > Is reinstalling OS X the thing to try first? > > It probably is now! When you do reinstall try first with the 'archive- > and-install' option. This will preserve all you own files, > applications, etc. If that doesn't work try a clean reinstall and > only if that fails should you consider erasing the HD.
Ok. > > My internal hard drive has three partitions, OS 9 (which I am using > > now), OS X, which won't boot up, and Data. I created these > > partitions in case of terminal problems developing with one > > partition as seems to have happened here, but I'm not sure what > > needs to be done to solve it now. > > On the other hand you could take this opportunity to re-partition > your drive to a single partition. There is normally no benefit in > partitioning with OS X and several reasons why it's a bad idea. OS X > will be happiest with the largest amount of free space possible and > you don't need to put OS 9 on its own partition either - you'll still > be able to boot into OS 9 if it's on the same one as OS X. I would certainly consider that but this machine is getting a bit old and is due to be replaced/demoted to backup machine. Its probably not worth doing now unless that level of deleting/reinstalling is unavoidable now. But that is very useful information for the future- my first inclination would be to partition the internal drive in my next machine. Is there any reason why I shouldn't just have a data partition on my internal hard drive? It seems rather handy, since if this (current problem or any equally serious equivalent) happens again I might have to lose everything on that volume, like I'm probably about to now! > FWIW the only third party disk utility I'd use with OS X is Disk > Warrior. Now THAT's interesting. I have been using DW 2.1 for OS 9 and believe it or not I just assumed, since I hadn't seen it mentioned anywhere lately, that it had no OS X version. Well now I know. I've just ordered it for OS X. Meanwhile- from what i can gather on the Alsoft web site, it SEEMS to be saying that I can use the old version (2.1) on an OS X partition and it iwll not harm the disk. It does use the words "no matter what operating system". An update to that- DW 2.1 says the OS X partition is too badly damaged to repair. And when I tried to install OS X on it using the "archive and install" option, it stopped almost immediately and told me "There were errrors installing the software. Please try installing the software again". This happened twice, so I don't think this option is going to work somehow. The remaining option I believe is "delete and install" or words to that effect. So I'll try that. Joe B. -- Mac UK is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 123Inkjets.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/123inkjets.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Mac UK list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/mac-uk.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-uk%40mail.maclaunch.com/> iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com
