DT files dropped into Finder and whole Mac slowing down

Question

Hi, I don't really know where to start my thread, so apologies if this is not the right place. My problem is that my Mac has slowed right down suddenly and my various DT files will not reappear (except for a few) when I restart. In fact, the DT is empty until I click at random, after which some of them appear. This all started when I did something that was probably unwise. I wanted to make a copy of my Photo Library for my external drive, so I created a file on the DT to put them in but this operation (about 5000 pictures) never really finished and I can see that these photos are stuck in some kind of DT limbo. What I may have done is drop them into the HD by mistake while I was dragging them to the external disk (?). I think that is what has bunged everything up but I have no idea what to do. I am trying to delete them within Finder but each time I do this I get a message for each individual file saying that the file is being used in another application and that deleting it might damage the other application. I can delete them, except for a few. In any case, this means clicking another 4500 times to delete each one individually, which is a bit beyond me. If anyone can help or direct me to another post, I'll re-post there.

Answer 1

Good! Available 194GB You are nowhere near the 10% mark.
Ok.. since things are slowing down... try booting from your install disk and run the Disk Utility app to check the startup disk for errors. You will need your install disk to do this.
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger and later) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
Select your start up disk and click Restart
*"like when I first turn it on, it takes forever to go to the users box."*
Open System Preferences/Accounts and select the Login Items tab.
If there are any applications listed there, delete them.
And go to ~/Library/Startup Items. If there are any files in the Startup Items folder, delete those also.
And see if deleting this file helps.
com.apple.loginwindow.plist
/Users/YourName/Library/Preferences. Drag that file to the Preferences folder to the Trash, empty the Trash and restart your Mac.
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit