Alright guys, I feel rather silly for asking, but what exactly should I do here?
The "Repair Disk" button is disabled?
I decided to do this because I was getting the spinning beachball about once every 45 seconds, and it's telling me something's obviously wrong, but how do I rectify the situation?
Thanks in advance. You're all jolly great people.
fix your permissions on your HD. thatll fix the problems 
Your going to have to boot into your Mac OS X disc that came with your mac.
Once booted and running, click on 'Utilities' from the menu bar and choose 'Disk utility' from the drop down menu. The reason it's disabled is because it's your currently booted Mac OSX partition.
that shouldnt matter. the only way it would be disabled is if the Permissions for the HD weren't set up correctly. Fixing the permissions should allow you to "repair" the disk
I don't think that's the reason the button is out, read the last sentence from the disk utility instructions...
You can't repair a startup disk while it's in use, and I only see one hard disk on the left panel...I'm not sure though.
did you fix it yet, V?
that shouldnt matter. the only way it would be disabled is if the Permissions for the HD weren't set up correctly. Fixing the permissions should allow you to "repair" the disk
You cannot repair a disk that you are executing the utility from. That is why the button is disabled.
Permissions have nothing to do with it.
Venom is correct. You need to boot to your install disk to repair the disk.
So, I did as Venom suggested (thanks Venom ) and it worked as planned. I failed to see the last bullet point right in front of my face...haha.
But the only thing that's bothering me now is...I'm still frequently getting the spinning wait cursor!! This is so frustrating. My computer becomes useless for 30 seconds at a time, and literally, this happens frequently. Like, once every 2 to 3 minutes tops. I'm literally at my wits end. I've spent hours trying to fix this while neglecting my homework.
Anyone have any ideas? I typically have over a gig of ram free not including the inactive part.
MacBook
2.16GHz
2 GB RAM
120 GB HD, 55 GB free.
I tried to install shapeshifter, but wound up not liking it because it didn't skin everything right on my computer. So I tried to remove as much of it as possible. Ever since then it appears that I've been getting this spinning beach ball, but it's been getting more and more frequent.
erm......if your book is new, try reformatting it? and reinstalling OSX?
that is, if you are willing to do so.
no way bro, haha.
I popped in Mac OS X Install Disc 1 and reinstalled Safari 2.0.3 there. I was thinking the "uninstall" for safari beta 3 probably is what jacked my system now.
After all, it was a beta, and Safari is closely integrated into the entire system.
So, no spinning beachballs so far, hopefully they don't return after a sleep or two.
good, I'm glad.
Ironically, I got the beachball upon pressing the submit button. Le sigh. Anybody have any clever ideas on how to get rid of this irritation?
I don't know sh*t about Macs, but given what I see here I'd say SOMETHING system file related got screwed up when you uninstalled Safari Beta 3. So try repairing OS files with the CD.
They really need to fire that dummy that left M$ to work for them. Someone at M$ must be paying him to make Macs look and act more like Winblows.
Wow. That sounds invigorating. start a movement! X_x....
yup as was said by venom you need to reboot of the Mac OSX disk. By booting off a cd opposed to the root drive, it gives the ability for more 'extensive' things to be done. Such as repairs to the root hd.
The Mac OSX install disk is excellent. A masterpiece of design, working like a GUI interface... its easy enough to find all the tools you need including disk utility. Microsoft sure could take some points from it...
using the windows blue/black dos-like parts of the windows installers scare me every time : , even though I know exactly what im doing.
erm......if your book is new, try reformatting it? and reinstalling OSX?that is, if you are willing to do so.
Best way to get everything running smoothly again. I suggest you back up your files and do a clean install. I do it once every 6 months for all the macs.
Best way to get everything running smoothly again. I suggest you back up your files and do a clean install. I do it once every 6 months for all the macs.
You do what? This is a Mac! You don't have to do crazy stuff like *gulp* reformat and reinstall the OS.
I thought Macs were the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Isn't OS X supposed to be idiot proof so that you can't mess it up?
I thought only Windows boxes needed a reformat and reinstall a couple of times a year.
Not the MAC!!!
Are you saying it has... wait for it... stability issues when you repeatedly install and uninstall apps?
What kind of crazy talk are you throwing out here?
At least on my Windows boxes, I can run repair functions on my disk without needing the OS install disk.
A simple chkdsk /f /r in the command prompt and a reboot... viola, the disk gets repaired.
Don't need a gui when a simple 10 character command line entry will do the trick just fine.
And just in case you are thick, I'm using sarcasm.
There is no such thing as a perfect OS. They ALL have their issues. Some more than others. 
Yeah, I'm actually starting to think that that might be the way to go. Anyone have any advice about an "Archive and Install"?
Sounds simple enough, but I'm not sure what settings/files will actually wind up going out the door.
well all I ever do with mine is backup using SuperDuper, then backup all my files to a network drive: icons, widgets, emails, music, photos, etc.
A clean install of OS X should be fairly simple enough afterwards. Wipe the disk clean, and install it from there. Then, load in all your back-upped files. For me, I do this maybe 2 times every 6 months. It only takes me a maximum of 2 hours (for every computer, that is)
There is no such thing as a perfect OS. They ALL have their issues. Some more than others.
You forget Windows 3.1. That thing was beautiful!
-NC
P.S: I'm not being sarcastic...more just joking around and being stupid. 
Agreed. Boy, I miss that "ba baa!" startup noise 
...made me feel like a winner!
You forget Windows 3.1. That thing was beautiful!-NC
P.S: I'm not being sarcastic...more just joking around and being stupid.
agreed it was nice and simple!.... no real virus threats, no real driver conflicts... nothing really at all.
(just a shame it couldnt really do much useful)
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