[TonyRado]

Well, here's the deal. So far, I hate Jaguar! The first thing I lost after a freeze in Jaguar was my mail.app preferences, and I had to completely recreate a new mail.app account. After doing this, my highlighted messages are a baby sh!t orange instead of the previous blue - and I can't figure out how to change it. No biggie, I continued on...

The next day, my finder menubar disappeared again and reverted back to the default menubar. This time, my OmniWeb menubar did the same thing (but it kept my menufavorite's bar. No biggie I thought. until I realized that this was just a precursor for yet another loss of my mail.app preferences.

The third and final time was the kicker. Last night everything was working fine, until I deleted my trash (don't know if this was a coincidence) only to find that up opening my finder window that my Menubar had again reverted back to the default set. I immediately quit mail.app in an attempt to save it! I then tried to launch mail.app again (hoping that the trouble had passed), only to get that damn "do you want to import a mailbox" window - yep, it was lost again. So, I restarted and ran fsck -y (like I did each time before), but just like all the other times, NO errors were found. The restart seemed to take a little longer then usual, and then it happened . . .

MY DOCK had reverted back to the default dock (or what I would imagine the default dock to look like)!!! Restarted again, same default dock - which was strange b/c I still had my wallpaper, and fruitmenu. Although, this time my Copypaste opened up as if I had never used it before and asked me if I wanted to register the product when I tried to quit (which I had alraedy done!).

I restarted in 9 just to see if it was a X thing. I clicked on something that shouldn't have been on my 9 desktop (a very old report from TechTools) and everything froze. Forced reboot and now I keep getting a blinking folder with a question mark!!! F*CK!

Took it to TechServe this a.m. However, I just read a thread about problems caused by corrupt preferences in the ~/user/Library, and I was wondering if any of any haxies could have caused this. (Windowshade, X-Battery, ASM Finder, FruitMenu, ClassicSpy - to name a few).

So, I was wondering if this sounds like a software issue, or is my HD shot? I know, I know, I should have tried booting from a CD before bringing it in, but I couldn't find my AppleCare CD (Until my gf - in all of her wisdom - informed me this morning that my AppleCare CD is at 'her house')

[Footy]

Maybe this isn't the responce your looking for and maybe someone else has an easy fix for you. However, if it were me I would try to get things running agian with my CD. Copy anything I wanted onto a CD (or however you backup) then reinstall everything. OS9 if your using it, then OSX.

I would make sure everything is running like it should be before installing any "Jag compatable haxies".

[Thinine]

Let this be a lesson to everyone. Don't upgrade 10.1 to 10.2 if you use lots of haxies.

[TonyRado]

Originally posted by Footy:
Maybe this isn't the response your looking for and maybe someone else has an easy fix for you. However, if it were me I would try to get things running again with my CD.

Ha, I am Tekserve right now!!! I ran out of my office and 'just' made it here before they locked the doors (7 o'clock). Anyway, I am going to get my AppleCare CD and try to do it myself. I 'am hoping that I'll be able to login using my gf's login b/c I don't think the haxies would effect her user (maybe they will tho). Anyway, hopefully I'll be posting back later tonight from my Ti. btw, are the preference for the haxies stored in home/library or this just a red herring? Thanks.

[TonyRado]

Well, this is truly good news!!! I was able to pick up my Ti last night. I got home and ran Disk FirstAid that was on my OS9.1 "Software Restore" CD. I got the following:

First Attempt:
*Mount check found serious errors
Result = Unable to repair, run again.

Second Attempt:
*Invalid BTree Header, 0,0
*Mount check found serious errors
*Volume Header needs minor repair, 1,0
*Volume Bit Map needs minor repair 4,384
Result = Unable to repair, run again.

Third Attempt:
*Invalid BTree Header, 0,0
*Mount check found serious errors
*Volume Bit Map needs minor repair 4,384
*Volume Header needs minor repair, 1,0
Result = Unable to repair, run again.

Fourth Attempt:
*Invalid BTree Header, 0,0
*Mount check found serious errors
*Volume Bit Map needs minor repair 4,384
*Volume Header needs minor repair, 1,0
Result = Unable to repair, run again.

Fifth Attempt:
*Invalid BTree Header, 0,0
*Mount check found serious errors
*Volume Header needs minor repair, 1,0
Result = volume APPEARS TO BE OK!!! WooHoo!!!

So, my volume was mounted and I immediately went in and Removed the following from my ~user/library:
Application Enhancers (including windowshade and ASM)
Cocoa eFax
Fruit Menu Items
Images
MenuPics
Mozilla
PreferencePane (windowshade, fruitmenu, ASM)
Sputnix Cache
all the .savers from the screensavers folder
all the fonts EXCEPT .default.fcache

I then put my Ti to sleep still booted to the CD. My plan is to pick up a cheap external HD (someone suggeste LaCie 40G for $160). Hook it up and "at least" move my entire HD to it. That way I should 'at the very least' always have access to my stuff - even if the OS falls over again when I try to boot it.

This whole thing is very strange b/c I remember Angus_D telling me a while back when I was running 10.1.x that the haxies can't effect the OS b/c they are running on a different level - so maybe my paranoia about the ~user/Library is without merit.

Anyway, thanks for the input. If anyone has any suggestions about what else to eliminate before booting, or the best way to back up to the external HD (so that I get all the invisible files, etc.) please post them. Thanks!!!

[Detrius]

I just wanted to point out: www.macintouch.com noted that there are a few bad disks that have been released. A new copy of Jaguar may also solve your problems.

Sucks, but standard troubleshooting techniques narrowed it down to the disk: install off a different disk fixes the problem.

--not to say that this is NECESSARILLY your problem, but it's a possibility.