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[quote blusubaru]It was all the pro application updates that did it in. The OS would have been fine. And for the record I had 1gb of hard drive space left, granted, not a lot, but enough.
No it isn't.
Mac OS X needs LOTS of room for temp files and swap files, particularly if you have less than 1GB of RAM.
At a *dead minimum,* I would recommend you keep AT LEAST 2GB free at ALL times. As you've discovered, trouble is right around the corner when you ignore this guideline.
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Well, the Archive and Install finally worked and I'm back up. I customized the install quite a bit and stripped out stuff that *I* don't need on my laptop (iDVD, Garageband, games...) in addition to the normal language stuff. Now I have 6.5gb available. Thanks all for your help and sorry for flying off the handle a bit, it's been a rough day.
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[quote blusubaru]Why is that? I've never had a crash to the point that I could not save anything. I've also never lost a hard drive. Yes, in 18 years using Macs, I've never lost a hard drive.
Yeah, that's a real good reason not to back up. So you probably don't carry car insurance since you've never had a bad wreck.
The reason you get the buy a backup drive comments is because people get tired of helping people that don't help themselves. If you come here and ask for a solution to your problem you should expect the advice and not get defensive about it. Spend $55 and get a backup drive. Here, I've done the work for you:
$24 case http://dealmac.com/deals/Western-Digital...33593.html
$30 160GB drivehttp://dealmac.com/deals/Mini-Portable-Disk-3-5-Fire-Wire-USB-2-0-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-for-24-shipped/132130.html
If you can't afford that then you might want to ask yourself why you own all that music. How much time have you spent ripping all that? Do you want to do that again?
Why anybody would apply a significant OS upgrade without a backup is beyond me. And why do you back up everything except your user folder. Seems odd to me.
BT
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" I do back up, but never the user folder. Why is that? I've never had a crash to the point that I could not save anything."
Let me get this straight. You claim to "back up" everything BUT the user folder. That makes no sense. Everything else is already on other media, and doesn't need to be backed up. What other personal or original content is there?
"Yes, in 18 years using Macs, I've never lost a hard drive."
If you've used a computer, you've had data loss, major or minor, that you couldn't recover. Everybody has. ALL hard drives are vulnerable to mechanical failure or data loss. And all computer users do stupid things.
If you've been using macs for 18 years, it's hard to imagine you'd accidentally cram your HD completely full, then overstuff it without realizing it. I've done goofier things than that, most of us have. Actually, no, I haven't. In fact, most of us haven't. Yours is the first documented case I've personally ever heard of.
"Unfortunately the jump from a 120gb drive to a 160gb is a bit more than I can afford, so that's why I was out of space."
Out of space on what? Your backup drive?
Even if you did have a secondary (backup) drive equal to the size of your primary hard drive, it wouldn't have helped, since you don't do backups. If you did, you'd know that a bare, brand new 160GB hard drive costs around $35.00, less than the average parking ticket.
"I'm not new to Macs, please don't insult me with the "hard drives are cheap and abundant, backup often" routine"
If you're not new to macs you needn't pretend to be insulted.
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The 160 drive expense I was speaking of was laptop drives. I would have gone with the 160 instead of the 120 from the beginning, but the price difference was too much.
I don't back up the system or the user file. I back up the documents folder (where all my important files go), photos and music.
I understand that when people ask for help with problems related to and OS malfunction that the common chain of questioning starts with "did you have a backup." But s***, if it was backed up, would they be asking in the first place!? My issue was not a matter of not having a backup. Oh, right, a backup of the OS could take me back to where I was, but that would not have FIXED me. I would still have 1gb of free space. I simply posted the thread with the question "what else can I try" to see if there were any tricks that could get it jump started. In the time it took half the people to respond negatively about not backing up, other people in a different place helped me through the problem.
Maybe it's just hard for you people to comprehend that I've never had mechanical errors on a machine. Sure, I've had it on fw drives, but not the main machine. I've never had to send a computer in for repairs, I've never had a corrupt OS drive... heck, my Performa 575 is still running like a champ when I plug it in and fire it up.
I appreciate the help.
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[quote blusubaru]I do back up, but never the user folder. Why is that? I've never had a crash to the point that I could not save anything. I've also never lost a hard drive. Yes, in 18 years using Macs, I've never lost a hard drive.
You back up the applications that are easily reinstalled, but you don't back up your original documents???
"I never wear a seat belt. Why? I've never been in an accident, that's why."
Wow....
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[quote blusubaru]I simply posted the thread with the question "what else can I try" to see if there were any tricks that could get it jump started. In the time it took half the people to respond negatively about not backing up, other people in a different place helped me through the problem.
I'm glad the archive and install worked. You're welcome.
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Mistake #1: partitioning
Mistake #2: not maintaining sufficient free space on the start-up volume
Mistake #3: actively working on a system that is in the process of being updated
Mistake #4: not having a current full backup
...but I make them too, as you can see by the number of edits to this post. Yeah, I'd say you 'shot yourself in the foot.' Thanks for the lessons, blusubaru...
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[quote blusubaru]It was all the pro application updates that did it in. The OS would have been fine. And for the record I had 1gb of hard drive space left, granted, not a lot, but enough. Now there's over 2gb. I don't know if there's some virtual memory issues going on or what, but my hard drive free space fluctuates. I have a 120gb drive in there, partitioned with a 15gb startup and remainder for music storage.
I'm not going to beat up on you at this point, you have already done your penance by now.
You need between 10-15% free space on your boot drive/partition to keep things running smoothly, or several gigs as a bare minimum, regardless of drive size, because of swap space and temp files. I have a 120 gig boot drive, and my machine slows down when I am under about 10 gigs free. If you have a 15 gig partition, I wouldn't go below maybe 3 gigs, maybe even 4. Run delocalizer and try and dump a gig or so of crap from the OS if you haven't already. And burn some CDs and dump some of the older crap, at least for now.
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"Oh, right, a backup of the OS could take me back to where I was, but that would not have FIXED me. I would still have 1gb of free space."
Actually it WOULD have fixed you. Once you can safely boot you can easily tackle your space allocation mistakes, you'd be back to a state before the crash, and you'd have the luxury of solving the problem without the additional headache of a crashed computer. Easy peasy. Or the additional headache of having to endure common sense advice from fellow mac users who are baffled by your rare situation, unsympathetic about your unwillingness to back up, and unimpressed by your alleged 18 years of experience.
"...a backup of the OS could take me back to where I was..."
There's no reason to back up "the OS". The OS---except for updates---is already on a set of discs. Why back up what's already backed up?
You're in an unusual situation because you stored your Operating System on ONE partition, and your OTHER stuff on ANOTHER partition. On modern macs there's ZERO BENEFIT to doing this. Whoever told you to do that gave you bad advice.
By now I imagine you're considering dumping the crippling partition scheme.
Most experienced computer users here back up their whole volume. Now that HD space is not a problem, backing up the whole thing is much easier. The duplicate comes in handy for emergencies, large and small. Not just big data-ruining crashes-- which few of us ever have anymore--but for regular troubleshooting purposes.
Information aimed at preventing future problems is more useful than information aimed at solving short-term problems that sure to be repeated.
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