10.5.2 & Linotype FontExplorer X

Anyone else having issues with Linotype's FontExplorer X?
Safari refuses to load certain pages when FE is running [daringfireball, pitchforkmedia, for examples.]
iPhoto wouldn't start up.
Quitting FE fixes the issue, but then of course I have to use Font Book...
I turned off extraneous fonts, cleared caches, reset safari, checked for obvious conflicts, etc.
All to no avail. Only thing that works is quitting FontExplorer, and that seems to instantly do the trick.
Thoughts?

Rik Bogusz wrote:
10.5.2 seems to have broke fontexplorer. and, what's worse, this problem seems to have taken down my cs3 apps. so far, after effects 8.0.2 and pshop 10.0.1 freeze on launch while initializing the type engine. i'll come back with any fixes
photoshop cs3 also won't launch with fontexplorer running. it works fine once i quit fontexplorer

Similar Messages

All fonts missing in Linotype Fontexplorer X

Hi,
Can anyone help? I use Linotype FontExplorer X for font management (I have 1900+ fonts installed but have less than 100 active at any one time). I have been using it successfully for years, mainly, with Indesign (also Photoshop & Illustrator - CS4). I last used InDesign 12 days ago with no problems but when I opened a regularly used file today, my fonts were missing. I opened Linotype and every font except the system fonts is missing. I use Time Machine so have restored the User/FontExplorer X/Font Library folder but is there any way to tell Linotype where the fonts folder is without having to reinstall each font individually, I tried restarting Linotype but it didn't locate the folder.
Thanks in advance
CB

That 'gulp' worries me!
I've just 'Time Machined' back to Sept 2009 and those 3 files are the only ones that ever show up in that location.
The .db file is 1.9mb and last modified/accessed last night when I restored the Font Library folder and reinstalled a few fonts to make sure it worked.
Are the other files you listed important? Is it a problem that I don't have and seem never to have had them?
I thought once I had restored the Font Library all would be ok, I'm just looking for a way to tell Linotype where the Font Library folder is so I don't need to install all the fonts and delete the ones it's not recognising (I'm thinking of something like the 're-link' for an image in InDesign when you move something to a different location)

Linotype FontExplorer X

Hello, wonder if anyone can help me, we have changed the location of our fonts folder to one central server and deleted the folder on out hard drives, as we have a number of computers linked to this one folder now instead of everyone using slightly different fonts. Trouble is Linotype now cannot see the path for where the new fonts are, it is still trying to load them from their old location, so we cannot see fonts. How do I change the path location to where the new fonts folder is kept. I have also turned off the font management because we do not want it to duplicate or move fonts from their current folder. So for example opening Indesign and it cannot find the font and my emails are boxes.
Can anyone help quite urgently please.

I use that as well and have never seen that problem. You might check the settings in FontExplorer Preferences/Advanced, but it sounds more like the preference file has become corrupted.
Close FontExplorer and go to Home/Library/Preferences and delete the file com.linotype.FontExplorerX.plist
then restart FontExplorer.

Linotype FontExplorer X auto-activation slows login time

Hello folks,
My problem is not that the core application FontExplorer X automatically opens at login. I have 'deactivated.. at login' - so the application itself only opens whenever I click it in the dock. However, the application's 'AutoLoad' plug-in starts at login. This is presumably a built-in feature that allows the core application FontExplorer X to load very quickly when selected at a later time. However, as a result, this seriously slows down my computer's login times.
I've tried to remove it from login items, but it's only a temporary solution - as the next time I select the core application during the course of the day, I've found that the 'AutoLoad' plug-in 'reinstalls' itself in login items. Is there a way I could stop this 'AutoLoad' plug-in from starting up when I login and remove it permanently from 'login items'?
Thanks.

Here is the official work-around for this problem.
1. Locate "FontExplorer X Pro.app" in Applications
2. Right-click on "FontExplorer X Pro.app" and select "Show Package Contents"
3. Navigate to /Contents/Helpers/
4. Double-click "FontExplorerXLauncher-3.app" or right-click and "Open" to launch it manually. This is needed only once, afterwards the plugins will work normally.
Please make sure you open the version with the "-3" suffix, the other one does not fix the problem.

FontExplorer and Quark6.5

Has anyone used FontExplorer and Quark6.5,
Ive installed FontExplorer and it installs in Xtension in Quark6.5 for activation, it says it will be a bit slower than Quark7,
However it causes all my quarks users to crash quark and then it corrupts their Quark preferences folder,
It also seems to prevent them opening files they have already created.
Anyone else had any problems?

Yes. Linotype FontExplorer does work with network home directories, but it does so in an unusual way, which explains the behavior you're describing.
Here's how it works: Font Explorer stores information about its database (sets, smart sets, etc.) in ~/Library/Application Support/Linotype. With a network home directory, some of the contents of this folder are redirected to /Users/Shared on the startup volume of the client Mac.
Thus, if Sally logs in to the same computer she used, FontExplorer should appear "correctly" - that is, in the state in which she left it.
However, if Sally logs in to another computer, that won't be the case. Her symbolic link will point to an empty folder, which will either present the setup assistant and "lose" all of the fonts.
With all this in mind, I should note that the fonts themselves - if you chose to manage fonts by copying/moving - are in Sally's network home directory on the server.
My recommendation is this: FontExplorer is a great tool, best suited for designers or other professionals who will be working with a "user per computer" model. Storage of font sets in terms for FontExplorer are effectively a per-user and per-computer "preference." For an academic environment, I recommend Font Book.

FontExplorer X Logout script

I'm rolling out FontExplorer X to our students and need a bit of help with the scripts to move the Fontdatabase file around.
My login script works as exspected but the logout script doesn't run at logout. It runs fine when a user is logged in
The script is attached as a LogoutHook.
Can someone help please??
!/bin/sh
username=`whoami`
userid=`/usr/bin/id -u`
userfolder=${username}_${userid}
userhome=`/usr/bin/id -P | cut -f9 -d:`
mv "/Users/Shared/Linotype/FontExplorer X/$userfolder/FontDatabase.db" "$userhome/Library/Font Temp/"
Message was edited by: nvp

The terminal command to use would be the following:
osascript -e 'tell application \"System Events\" to log out'
The AppleScript line to use would be this:
tell application "System Events" to log out
These can be put into a login hook script (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2420) or can be put into an AppleScript application (which can be created with the Automator utility), which then can be placed in the user's login items so it runs at login.
The problem here is overcoming Apple's warning about automatically resuming your workflow, which appears at every logout.

FontExplorer X and Pages?

Hello,
I just installed iWork '08. I want to create a flyer template for a client so they don't have to learn Illustrator. I'm using Linotype FontExplorer X to manage my fonts, however, the only fonts listed in Pages are the System fonts. Without sending the fonts I need to Font Book, what are my options?
Thanks,
Josh

Pages v5 uses a new document architecture that is incompatible with earlier releases of Pages. Still has the .pages file extension to further confuse you. If you have Pages ’09 running, and attempt to open a v5 document (e.g. double-click), you will get the following dialog. What it really means in English is that Pages '09 cannot open Pages v5 documents, and that you should upgrade to Pages v5. Since you already have done so, or you wouldn't get this message, the dialog is nonsense. There is no newer Pages ’09 version than v4.3, and it is no longer available from the OS X App Store.
Pages v5.2.2 will periodically lose its mind, and claim that it cannot open a document created by itself. You can double-click on it until you run out of expletives, or use a right-button click and open with Pages (default) (5.2.2). This is a horrendous application.
Pages v5.2.2 will quietly open Pages ’09 documents, and because it has 110 fewer features/functionalities than Pages ’09, it will also filter out what it does not support, and then auto-save the contents. Having a backup of your Pages ’09 documents is crucial with this behavior.
I removed any Pages icon from my Dock. I then dragged each Pages application icon to my Dock, so that they are adjacent. With both installed, extra precaution is necessary, as any double-click on a document, will attempt to open it in Pages v5 first. Pages ’09 documents must be opened via that application's document chooser, or via a right-click, open with Pages (4.3) menu item.
As I have posted previously, I created two new Finder tag items. A blue one that I named Pages ’09, and a yellow one that I named sh*t Pages v5. I place these tags on the respective Pages documents to avoid a train wreck, and to aid Finder searches (e.g. tag: Pages '09.)

FontExplorer woes

I work for a magazine and have about 1500 fonts that I manage using Linotype FontExplorer X 1.2.3. Only Mac OS fonts are installed in my system folder; the rest are in a separate folder on my hard drive and managed by FontExplorer.
Until Monday, it worked fine. On Monday afternoon, FontExplorer began hanging upon startup and then persistently trying unsuccessfully to connect to our Mac server-based network (to which I was already connected, and which continued to work fine to access Word, Quark, etc. files). FontExplorer keeps coming up with a box saying "Connection failed This server may not exist or it is not operational at this time. Check the server name or IP address and your network connection and try again."
The result of FontExplorer hanging and having to be force quit is that my fonts are not activated when I try to open Quark documents that require those fonts. That means I can't do my job.
I have found that if I created a new user account on my Mac, FontExplorer worked fine, so it seems there is some setting in my administrator account that has changed that is conflicting with Font Explorer. Prior to this problem with Font Explorer, I had not installed new software and changed no preferences, nor made any changes to the computer that I was aware of. (12 hours prior, I had been working on the computer with no problems at all, but something somehow changed from shut down the evening before and startup the next day.)
I have since:
- deinstalled FontExplorer with Appcleaner and reinstalled, after each of the following steps -- No luck.
- deleted all fonts that were not system fonts -- No luck: in the times when FontExplorer boots up enough to show me the window before it hangs, all of the fonts I originally had continue to be listed
- did an erase and install of Leopard, CS3, Office, Quark, FontExplorer. I backed up and restored only the absolute essentials: mail files, documents, iTunes library, iPhoto library, Address Book and iCal. No luck.
- tried using FontNuke 1.1.5 to reset font caches -- No luck.
- searched for and found shell scripts to run that clear font caches by user -- No luck.
- searched for and found Terminal commands to open the window that contains cache and temporary folders, and then deleted them -- No luck.
- used Font Book to determine if there were conflicts with any fonts and then deleted those fonts. Here again, Font Book continued to show some of the fonts that I had deleted. I deactivated all but the system fonts. No luck.
- booted up in safe mode and tried running FotExplorer -- No luck, same problem.
- zapped the PRAM (couldn't hurt, huh?) -- No luck.
- repaired permissions (at several points throughout the process, including after every single reinstallation of system software and Office, CS3, etc.)
That's it. There's nothing left that I know to do. Does anybody, ANYBODY at all, have any suggestions? This can't possibly be as hard as I've made it to solve...

I can't help with the font problems (see Font Management in OS X for details on that); however, since the problem doesn't exist in the new account and, assuming that the new account is an admin account, this is what I suggest you do to resolve the conflict/corruption in the original account.
While logged into the newly created admin account, backup the bad account's folder, delete the bad account, selecting the save data option, recreate the bad account using the same username/password combo, log out and back into the recreated original account. If the problem's solved, open the saved data dmg file in /Users/Deleted Users/, open the /Library/Preferences/ folder from the saved data, open the current /Users/restored account/Library/Preferences/ folder, and slowly copy plist files from the saved data folder to the current one that don't exist in it. Log out and back in to ensure there's no conflict and things still work correctly. Resolving conflicts or identifying corrupt plist files is a laborious process. Good luck.
See http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4703015 for more details on this process.

Helvetica Neue monotype, linotype or adobe?

Hello everyone
I'm doing a job using Helvetica Neue for a client who has specified that it should be from the Monotype foundry. On checking mine (in Quark's utilities) it says what I'm using is a Adobe Systems Type 1 Postscript font. When I looked online to research about purchasing the Monotype version I keep finding it mostly available as either as Linotype or Adobe but Monotype is really rare, other than from 1 US font site. Certain sites imply that Linotype and Monotype is the same !!! Are they so different from the different foundries that text will reflow quite a bit? It's an expense that I can quite do without if I can help it.
In addition I find it very confusing that there is a Helvetica Neue Roman AND a Helvetica Neue 55 (or light and 45 etc) in my drop down font menu. Is this because they are from 2 different foundries that has mixed up in my system? Sometimes when I get work back having used the '55', I find that it's been changed to the 'roman' version and I need to change it back again. I am concerned that if I use the Monotype version it'll add another layer of problem to this existing one.
Another thing is, sometimes you see the font listed as Neue Helvetica, and Helvetica Neue (reversed order). Other times it's spelt as HelveticaNeue with no space between the 2 words and other times there's a space. It's all very confusing. Again is this because thaey are from different foundries?
Lastly, is there a place in InDesign v5 that gives this info in a similar way to Quark's Utilities eg Path, Folder and Foundry etc for easy reference?
Thanking in advance for your help.
Jadey

If a client is going to be that specific about a font—down to the exact foundry, I mean—I'd ask them if they can supply it along with the job. If not, and it's crucial, I think you could include the purchase of the font in your billing to them. In that case, it would be appropriate to include the font with the job, for them to keep, if they requested it; otherwise, you could keep it for your own use. (You shouldn't both keep a copy if you've only purchased a single license.)
It sounds like you're concerned about reflowing text, which is an understandable concern. You should be able to test this simply by making a copy of the document and seeing how the text flows with your version of the font.
It also sounds like it's time for you to consider installing some font management software, which will allow you to view font information, activate and deactivate fonts, etc. Personally, I think Linotype FontExplorer Pro is easy to work with, flexible, and has a lot of nice features.

FontExplorer + Network Home Directories = font amnesia

I'm a humble (tho ambitious) graphic design instructor trying to get network home directories working in my 30-seat design lab. At the beginning of January I migrated all workstations to a freshly built 10.4.4 universal image and updated (actually re-installed) my server and took it to 10.4.4.
In my testing of network home directories everything is working perfectly accept our font manager. (Even Word is playing nice thanks to a tip I found here!)
We started with FontAgent (cause we own 30 licenses), but quickly found that to be not very well adapted to a network home environment. (I did get the official work-around shell scripts from Insider Software, and those looked to be an easily broken kluge that only solve half the problem.)
So again following Gerrit's tips from here, I tried the latest version of FontExplorer which is supposed to support network home directories-- and it runs! (Unlike FontAgent.)
...but it has an incurable case of amnesia. In other words, as users move around from machine to machine, session to session, and day to day it always forgets all their fonts-- even though the actual font files always remain accessible in the same place.
Upon investigation, I can see that FontExplorer is actually doing something very similar to the FontAgent shell scripts. That is, whenever FontExplorer is launched in a NHD environment it creates a new "FontDatabase.db" file in a directory on the local drive:
Users/Shared/Linotype/FontExplorer X/{UserShortName}_{UserNumericID}/
and creates a symbolic back to the file's customary location in the user's networked Library:
/Application Support/Linotype/FontExplorer X/
The amnesia part comes in because I haven't found a way to get FontExplorer to start with-- or keep-- an already configured "FontDatabase.db" file. It constantly seems to be resetting itself with each login.
Does anyone have wisodm or suggestions on how to make FontExplorer remember its fonts?
Does anyone have any tips for getting any font manger to be totally functional in a network home environment?
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Excellent tips, and thank you - they're very helpful for all involved!
I see that you're using NFS (and its behavior makes sense), but this might make your life a little easier if you were to use AFP for home directories again:
1. If you have an automounted network Library (/Network/Library), that would be perfect for housing a "starter set" of Font Explorer preferences and your initial, preconfigured database file, in this way.
Create a folder in your automounted network Library and name it something like FEInitialData. Set the permissions such that your users can only read (root:admin 775 would be good). Now your clients all see the FEInitialData folder in /Network/Library/FEInitialData.
Locate these files from an appropriately configured local user account: com.linotype.FontExplorer.plist and the ~/Library/Application Support/Linotype/FontExplorer X folder (that contains the FontDatabase.db file).
Place a copy of the com.linotype.FontExplorer.plist file in the FEInitialData folder in your network Library. (To clients, this appears as /Network/Library/FEInitialData/com.linotype.FontExplorer.plist.)
Use Disk Utility to create a new disk image from the local ~/Library/Application Support/Linotype folder. Make sure that the image is a read/write image, and name it something like FESupport.dmg. Then place that resulting disk image in the network Library, so that to clients, this appears as /Network/Library/FEInitialData/FESupport.dmg.
2. Utilize an AppleScript app as a login item to perform the following listed actions at login time. You'll have to either distribute the login app to each computer (e.g. in their respective Applications folders), or place it in the automounted Library (or automounted Applications, etc.) like /Network/Library/LoginScript.app. You'll also have to define the script as a login item for your users. You can do that at the group level in Workgroup Manager once you have the LoginScript.app in the same relative place on each client.
Be sure also to remove FontExplorer X itself as a login item, since it needs to be quit while we're preparing files for it!
Listed Actions to be done by LoginScript.app:
1. If no ~/Library/Preferences/com.linotype.FontExplorer.plist file exists, copy it from /Network/Library/FEInitialData.
2. If no ~/FESupport.dmg file exists, copy it from /Network/Library/FEInitialData.
3. Mount the FESupport.dmg file to a local filesystem path, so that its contents appear to reside in a local folder. (For this script, I'll use /tmp.)
4. Ensure that a ~/Library/Application Support/Linotype folder exists and contains a symbolic link named "Font Explorer X" which points to the mounted disk image's contents.
5. Launch Font Explorer. (Upon initial launch, the metadata caches should be recreated.)
-----LoginScript.app---
(*See if the preference file and FESupport disk image are in the right places. If not, copy them there.*)
try
do shell script "ls ~/Library/Preferences | grep 'com.linotype'"
on error
--The com.linotype.FontExplorer.plist file is missing.
do shell script "cp /Network/Library/FEInitialData/com.linotype.FontExplorer.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.linotype.FontExplorer.plist"
end try
try
do shell script "ls ~ | grep 'FESupport.dmg'"
on error
--The disk image is missing.
do shell script "cp /Network/Library/FEInitialData/FESupport.dmg ~/FESupport.dmg"
end try
(*Create the mount point for the FESupport.dmg file*)
try
--Delete the mount point in case we're not the first login and to ensure that we have an empty folder owned by this user.
do shell script "rm -rf /tmp/FEMountPoint"
end try
try
--Create the mount point
try
do shell script "mkdir /tmp/FEMountPoint"
end try
(*Ensure that we have a symbolic link to the mount point*)
try
--Remove any existing links just to be safe.
do shell script "rm -rf \"~/Library/Application Support/Linotype\""
end try
try
--Create new symbolic links.
do shell script "mkdir \"~/Library/Application Support/Linotype\""
do shell script "ln -s \"/tmp/FEMountPoint/FontExplorer X\" \"~/Library/Application Support/Linotype/FontExplorer X\""
(*Mount the ~/FESupport.dmg file to /tmp/FEMountPoint*)
do shell script "hdiutil attach ~/FESupport.dmg -mountpoint /tmp/FEMountPoint"
(*Open FontExplorer*)
do shell script "open \"/Applications/Linotype FontExplorer X.app\""
---End Script---
I might have messed up some of the syntax, so consider this a working example. Hope it helps!
And, yes, if you need consulting, you can find my contact info at consultants.apple.com/consultant by searching for AuburnMac.
--Gerrit

Fontexplorer X NEW PROBLEM

Hi I upgraded my font explorer X since the update on Feb.12th but now every time I open the application it treats it as if its a new application im loading.
So basically I go through the steps of telling it how to manage fonts etc then it says ok your done and restarts my computer, I open the program, and it begins all over again.
Is anyone else having this problem?

is it easy to go back to tiger?
You'd have to do either an Archive and Install or an Erase and Install. Depends on how much time you'd want to spend doing one or the other.
Anyway, something appears to be wrong with FontExplorer X. I wouldn't go back to Tiger just for that. At least not just yet.
Have you tried reinstalling FEX? FontExplorer X has no uninstall option, so you'd have to remove it manually if you wanted to do that before reinstalling. Delete the following items. Anyplace you see a tilde (~) indicates your user account.
~/Library/Application Support/Linotype/FontExplorer X/ (remove the folder FontExplorer X)
~/Library/Caches/Metadata/FontExplorer X/ (remove the folder FontExplorer X)
~/Library/Caches/Linotype FontExplorer X/ (remove the folder Linotype FontExplorer X)
~/Library/Preferences/com.artistictechworks.FontExplorer.plist (you may not have that one)
~/Library/Preferences/com.Linotype.FontExplorerX.plist
Linotype FontExplorer X (the application itself, wherever you have it)
Download a fresh copy of FontExplorer X from LinoType's web site and install that. Current version is 1.2.3.

Font list wrong in InDesign CS3

I use Linotype FontExplorer X to organize and activate fonts and have been very happy with it. All of a sudden I'm finding that though I have the font "Times" (with roman, italic, bold and bold italic) activated, the font list in InDesign CS3 shows "Times (TI)" (which only has roman) and "Times (BM)" (which only has regular). If I launch InDesign CS2, the font list is correct, showing "Times" (with roman, italic, bold and bold italic) and not "Times (TI)" or "Times (BM)". What gives?
I'm using system 10.4.10.

The usual first step for this kind of error would be to delete the Adobefnt*.lst files, where the * is any number.
Peter

Mac Pro crashing on shutdown (and some other things)

The following behavior began about 4 or 5 days ago...
Mac Pro crashes/freezes every time I shutdown (or Restart). Some process seems to be not quitting on shutdown - the screen goes blue and I get the spinning beachball. It'll just hang like that indefinitely. To get it to shut down, I have to hold the power button for several seconds. After starting up again, the machine *mostly* runs fine, but there are some apps/services that either just don't do anything, or causes the Mac to hang, or get into a funk state. These other things that seem to destabilize it include:
Apple menu > About this Mac: nothing happens (no dialog)
iTunes: dock icon just bounces, iTunes never launches
System Prefs > Accounts > Login items: System Prefs hangs. Force quit allows Prefs to open again.
Some apps/services also cause things to hang:
Activity Monitor: quitting some processes causes Actvity Monitor to freeze
Clicking SOHO Notes (tab alonmg the edge of the monitor) results in spinning beachball
Rolling over Linotype FontExplorer in the Dock causes the Dock to freeze, FontExporer never opens
There are probably other things that would make it hang, I have not gone looking for them all
System details:
Mac Pro 4,1 .66 ghz, 8 GB RAM
Mac OSX 10.6.8
Dual monitors, two internal hard drives (internal; drive A, internal drive B), multiple external FW hard drives attached
I have already done the following:
Disk Utility: Verified and Repaired Disk Permissions
Disk Utility: Verified Disk, Repaired Disk - this found errors, and suggested reformat/reinstall
I have already booted off internal drive B and ran Disk Utility, then restarted and booted off internal drive A again. No difference.
I have Time Machine backups on an external 1 TB FW drive.
Late last night, I restarted, inserted my original Snow Leopard DVD, launched the MacOSX installer. Recovered a prior system by choosing Utilities > Restore System From Backup, selected a Time Machine backup a few days old (a day or two prior to the problem begining) on the external 1 TB FW drive, and initiated the restore. The estimated restore time was about 5 hours, so I went to bed and let it run. Got up early, and checked: it said the Restore operation was successful. I was relieved. But the same conditions continued - launching or rolling over the items listed above cause the same freeze/crash/hangs. Hangs on shutdown, only way to kill things is the power button. So now I'm disappointed.
I do have multiple backups of my data files across the external hard drives, but this is a large machine with a lot of stuff on it, and I'd really like to recover things wholesale, rather than having to reconstruct accounts and other things. Before I go to bed tonight, I'm going to take another shot at recovering the system from a Time Machine backup - this time, I'll pick a backup that's from a full week before the problems started (the idea being that maybe the backup I picked last time was not far enough back from whatever incident caused all this).
If the week-old Time Machine backup works, great. But if not...any suggestions?
Additional data points...
Nothing new was installed or updated (as far as I know, and I generally pay attention) in the days prior to the problem.
The last thing I recall doing on the computer before the problem began, was burning a DVD (using Toast) - something I do all the time. After that operation, I tried to shut down, and it froze.
The primary internal hard drive partition (internal drive A) seems to be the only one that's having trouble: if I reboot off of internal drive B, the problems do NOT occur - no hang on quit, etc.
That suggests it's not a hardware problem (logic board, etc.) but is something about the System on drive A.
It *could* be bad sectors on drive A - but I have some questions about that...
When I did the full system recovery via the MacOS installer (pulling the old system from Time machine), does the destination drive get reformatted? I don't recall being asked the usual partition/formatting questions.
When the installer does a system restore, does it do any integrity checking on the target drive, or does it just blindly lay down bits?
Does this "freeze on shutdown" (and related behaviors) sound familiar?
Any tips/suggestions to fix this?
Thanks in advance.

More info and a question...
Did another full restore (from a Time machine backup on an external drive) last night - picked a backup from from 10 days ago, long before things became problematic. Still having the same issues.
So, I'm thinking the next thing to try is a low-level reformat of the internal drive(s) and then restore again. I have a couple questions about the finer points of that...
I'm following the instructions in this KB document: Mac OS X 10.6: Recovering your entire system.
Inserting my original Snow Leopard DVD, launching the MacOS installer, restarting, in the installer choosing Restore System from Backup. It appears that there is no re-formatting of the target drive in this case - it just over-writes.
My questions...
The contents of the target drive are going to get wiped and overwritten anyway. Do I have anything to lose/to risk by reformatting FIRST (using Disk Utility), then booting off the install DVD and restoring then?
My 1 TB internal drive is partitioned into the primary 750 GB partition (which is the problematic one) and a secondary 250 GB partition (which boots and runs fine). The secondary partition has some data I would prefer not to lose. I assume that if want to do a full reformat of the internal drive, that means the whole drive - both partitions - will be wiped (that is, I cant reformat just one partition on a single physical drive without reformatting the second partition). Correct?
I suppose I can back up the data that resides on the second partition to an additional external drive (I have extras) if needed - not a huge deal.
Do my new partition sizes need to exactly match the sizes of the original partitions? Neither is completely full, but I want to make sure that I will be able to restore the system and contents of the primary partition even if the new partition size is not bit-by-bit the exact same size as the old partition (I assume the new partition size just needs to be large enough to hold the backup - correct?).
So....I'm looking at the following sequence:
Back up the data I want off the secondary partition to an external drive
Boot off the Snow Leopard install DVD
Run Disk Utility and reformat (fully erase) the internall 1 TB drive
Partition that 1 TB internal drive to (more or less) the two previous (about) 750 GB + 250 GB partitions
Restore a recent Time Machine backup (from an external FW drive) to partition #1
Reasonable plan? Anything I'm missing here? Any other steps I should take?
Thanks for any help.

Computer slower and a few other strange problems since upgrading to SL

Hi all,
About a month ago, I upgraded my mid-2009 MBP to SL. I'm now on 10.6.1. Ever since the upgrade, my computer's been somewhat slower than it was when I ran Leopard (although many people I know say their machines are faster). I did restart several times at one point, and that seemed to speed it up, although it still experiences delays I didn't have before. I've also had a bunch of strange issues:
1) Safari is most noticeably slow, especially when using something like Top Sites on Safari 4. I alleviated this problem somewhat by setting new tabs to open a blank window rather than Top Sites, but even so, Safari is generally slower, gives me 'pinwheels' often, and also is less stable.
2) The other day, I restarted to find that all fonts except system fonts had been mysteriously deactivated. As a designer, I rely heavily on my many fonts, which I manage using Linotype FontExplorer.
3) Today, I opened my computer up after having it sleeping in a backpack, and it had turned off. It was not out of battery; it had just turned off for no apparent reason.
4) Judging by Activity Monitor, RAM is being used somewhat more heavily by the system, contrary to the advertisements of a 'lighter' footprint for SL as compared to Leopard. However, according to Activity Monitor (which I check frequently), the processor does not appear to be getting taxed any more heavily than under Leopard, which makes the sluggishness more inexplicable.
5) Yesterday, I could not get my computer to recognize my Time Machine backup disc. After restarting, it worked, but this is a pain.
I appreciate any advice I can get. Does anyone else have similar problems or solutions? Or is the general consensus that these are SL bugs that Apple will work out by about 10.6.4 or so?
Thanks,
Nathan
Message was edited by: nateeanes

I began this thread awhile ago, but the essence of it is that I had a number of strange problems, although mostly my computer was just slower, when upgrading from Leo to SL.
I've now wiped my HD and re-installed SL. It seems faster, although there are still a few issues:
1) iWork (Pages, Numbers) has very weird coloring. All the text looks light blue and/or cyan, and I can't fix it.
2) Although initially Safari worked great, lately it's been going back to its habits of being slow and showing strange things like chopping up the 'Top Sites' view, i.e. rendering it in an off way.
3) Adobe CS3 will not install properly. I get them loaded up, but when I try to launch a program, I get an error that says "licensing for this product has stopped working". I cannot get to the 'activate' page, even though I uninstalled and deactivated CS3.
In the interest of full disclosure, I did restore my home account after clean installing SL-- maybe I should have brought the files over folder by folder rather than bringing back my whole home folder with its settings? I wonder if I accidentally brought over Adobe's FLEXnet folder too.
Also, does anyone know if Adobe CS3 can cause these problems with Safari and other programs? It just seems that the whole machine was slower after installing CS3, even though I wasn't running the programs.
Any help is appreciated.
Nate

User account on external hard disc frequently gets corrupted - reasons?

Dear all,
I have recently written a question regarding a problem with my user account; in this question I have described that I have my data for my user account on an external hard disc (USB2 hard disc), and that all data in this account seemed to be deleted one day (in fact, it was simply set to a wrong path, see below); user V.K. has helped me out of the problem - the problem could be solved by renaming the external hard disc and setting the path to my user data folder in the "user account" settings to my old folder on the renamed disc; You can find our discussions here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1513799&tstart=0 By the way, I use OS X 10.5 (newest version).
Now, several months later I find myself in the situation that the problem returns frequently, although I do not yet see regularities or the reason; each time the described renaming-procedure helps, but anyway it is annoying, and some programs who have data on my user account folder (such as Linotype FontExplorer X - latest version!) even fail to notice the change and have to be very reset with lot of effort.
Now, as I can not imagine that I am the only one who uses a user account on an external drive, I start wondering what am I doing wrong. Did anybody else ever experience problems like these? Does it also occur when the user account is stored in a network (on a server) - which must be a very common workplace setup? Is there anything known about the reasons?
I do not understand what causes this problem; and also, the problem seems to be very intricate - I do not know enough about the internals of Mac OS X, but (if You look into my old post cited above), if You simply try to reset the user path in the user account settings to the folder on the NOT renamed disc, the account stops to work completely, and the user cannot log into it at all; somehow, there seem to be different "stages" of corruption of the account on the external drive - I think that this may help somebody with detailled knowledge to understand the problem, but I am out of the game here... also, all the old names of the external drive keep to be mounted in the "Volumes"-folder on Macintosh HD - although they don't exist anymore.
I have formatted the external drive to "Mac OS Extended"; is this okay - or should it better be formatted to "Journaled"? The drive is a 500 GB external drive from LaCie - I think it should be okay (I have two of them - one for TimeMachine - the drives themselves work reliably, it appears).
Is there anybody who can help - or anybody with a similar setup and who could tell me whether or not he ever experienced a similar problem, and what he did against it (if necessary)? Thanks in advance!!!
With kind regards and greetings from Berlin,
Björn

Aside from starting over, losing whatever you've done on the new machine, see Pondini's Transferring files from one User Account to another. If you haven't done much and can afford to lose that data, I suggest starting over, following the steps in Pondini's Setup New Mac guide. That should result in just one user account.

10.5.2 & Linotype FontExplorer X

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for