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donutogre · Apr 10, 2003, 05:51 PM

hey all...i've got a big problem, and as i'm only on week 2 of my mac os x experience, i'm not sure what to do. i was using software update to install 10.2.5 and my computer freaked out and told me that i had to restart. did so, and now it won't get past the boot screen without telling me i have to restart!!! i put in the software Cd and held down c and restarted and now it wants me to reinstall. will this wipe out everything on my computer??? there has to be some other way around this....i have a term paper on there that is due tomorrow! PLEASE someone help me

NYK Ace · Apr 10, 2003, 05:57 PM

if you reinstall it wont erase everything only if you choose so, it will just replace the broken parts of your system with a basic reinstall

hope that helps

Hozie · Apr 10, 2003, 06:32 PM

Before you do that: restart your computer and hold down cmd-S. (That's the key with the apple and the s-key). You'lll see a black screen with gibbersih on it. Once it stops loading, type "fsck -y" without the quotation marks. That's fsck then a space, a hyphen and a y. It'lll take a while to check and repair your filesystem. After it's done, type 'reboot' and see if that fixes the problem.

donutogre · Apr 10, 2003, 07:22 PM

back in business, thanks to applecare. had to wait on the line for quite awhile but it was easy enough to fix. just used the software restore cd, clicked on the appropriate settings and waited for the reinstall. wouldn't have wanted to do it the first time by myself with something this big on the line, but its nice to know that i can survive my first kernal panic.

one other question, i am now down about 2.5 gigs on my hard drive compared to before..i am assuming that os x backed things up and that the folder in my main drive labeled "previous systems" is what is taking up that space...does anyone know if i am allowed to toss this now that i'm back in business? i just don't wanna risk screwing something up again

real · Apr 10, 2003, 07:27 PM

Good to hear, About the the other files look threw them and see it is most likey just system stuff(have never done this type of reinstall so I can tell you for sure) Theres someone here who knows thou.

real

Mastrap · Apr 11, 2003, 12:10 AM

Originally posted by donutogre:

one other question, i am now down about 2.5 gigs on my hard drive compared to before..i am assuming that os x backed things up and that the folder in my main drive labeled "previous systems" is what is taking up that space...does anyone know if i am allowed to toss this now that i'm back in business? i just don't wanna risk screwing something up again

Chuck it.

And make sure that in future you back your stuff up. Get yourself a cheap little firewire drive if you can afford it and copy your user/documents/ and user/library/ folder at least once a week. That way, should the excrement hit the fan, all isn't lost. I had a rather dramatic drive failure on my iBook a couple of months back, it would have been extremely unfunny to lose all of my stuff.

icruise · Apr 11, 2003, 01:10 AM

You may have to log in as root in order to delete the previous systems folder, though.