Spinning beach ball from ****

Question

Hi folks,
The spinning beachball from **** is really bothering me with my iMac, I've gone through the forum and most of the things suggested - i.e using OnyX to clean everything up etc but still it seems to come up on the simplest things like opening up a quicktime file. It is disrupting my editing now as the beachball will turn up occasionally and I have to wait a good ten mins before it disappears.
The iMac I upgraded to 2GB memory, and the processor is 2GHz Intel Core Duo. The internal hard drive is 750 GB with 450GB free as I use a 1.5 terrabyte external drive for all my footage and capture scratch for Final Cut. the operating system is Mac OSX 10.4.11.
The thing I have noticed in the Activity Monitor is that when I click on the Disk Activity tab occassionally there can be up to 4 large red peaks which doesn't look too clever, however this is sporadic and I'm not sure if this normal?
Again, any help would be much appreciated I'm working with miniDV and DVCAM footage as I use my Macbook Pro to edit in HD so it's nothing to do with this I'm sure. But I'm at a loss to figure out why this continually keeps plaguing me and I fear if the beachball comes up again I may well throw the mac out the window....!
Cheers guys,
Matty

Answer 1

I can understand people's resistance to this process but it is absolutely the only way to insure a problem free installation of your professional applications.
Herein are X's rules for a happy experience.
• Make a list of all Applications to install. Which ones do you need? Go through your Applications and Utilities folder and note which ones you'll want to reinstall. Note the version.
(I don't know about you, but I had a shocking number of apps I downloaded, used for a few times and never used again. Forget installing these disused apps.)
• If you are upgrading from a PPC to an intel machine, you'll want to know if the apps are UB or PPC. Upgrading your PPC software to UB can be a significant cost in a PPC to intel conversion. Know what you are getting into - do a search before installation to see if there is a UB version available. You can find out whether an app is PPC or UB by looking in System Profiler>Software>Applications. This window will also tell you the current installed version number. Generate a .pdf file of it and have everything listed for your records.
• In the list, note whether is was a download or you have a disk. If it was a download, find the DMG or installer package and copy it to an external firewire drive. Put it in a folder titled - Apps to be installed - or something easily identifiable.
• If you need to go back to a previous version (e.g. QT 6.5.2) download the dmg file BEFORE you start the installation process.
• In the list, note if the application is a full install or an UPGRADE. If an upgrade, make sure you have the previous version's disks (as well as the serial numbers - see below).
If the UPGRADE version does not require the previous version to be present - eg when installing the upgrade version of FCP 6, DO NOT install earlier software. All you'll need is the previous serial number. The way to figure this out is to try to install the newest version. If it needs the previous version present before proceeding, the install process will tell you that.
Some upgrades will require that a version of the previous app is on the disk. If this is the case, when you install the first version, simply install the minimum so the app will be on the hard drive. You will need to do this because there will be NOTHING on the disk after you do your clean erase.
• Referencing your list, find ALL your disks before you start. This includes previous versions if you are unsure whether they will be needed.
• Spend some time looking through this forum for Professional Application installation issues. The classic example is a conflict between Logic and FCP. Install FCP first and you'll have no issues.
• Sort your list into an installation sequence. Lay out your disks in that order.
• Referencing the list, make sure you have ALL your serial numbers including those you've downloaded. I've purchased a number of programs on line and the only documentation of the serial number was an email. All those are kept in a dedicated folder in Mac Mail. For serial numbers that arrived via electronic means, use cut and paste instead of re-typing whenever possible. This will prevent errors in transcription.
In making the list, TEXT EDIT works ok, (I use Excel). Text edit has the benefit of being easily readable on any mac. Print the list out for reference, put a copy on a flash drive or a firewire drive where you can access it to cut and past serial numbers during the installation process.
• Recognize this is going to take some time. Ranting, drinking too much coffee, swearing, sitting in front of the computer watching the progress bar, etc will not make things go faster. All it will to is put you in a really bad frame of mind. Do it over a weekend when you can be multitasking. While you are cleaning off the mountains of paper on your desk or raking the yard, you can take regular breaks to check on progress.
Process -
• Download Carbon Copy Cloner or one of the other backup utilities and do a full backup of your existing system drive to an external firewire drive. Make the drive bootable. *Do not* cheap out on this as this is your insurance policy. If you forget something or can not find a serial number, you often can find it and copy it from the backup system to the newly installed version. Or, if things go horribly wrong, you can simply copy the old system back to your computer and pick up where you left off.
If you have a MacPro or G5 tower, an alternative to cloning your existing system disk is to pick up a new hard drive to use as the clean new system disk. Your existing system disk will be the clone.
• Once you have gathered and organized all the materials and backed up the drive or installed the new system drive ...
• Erase the hard drive. Use the ZEROs option as this will map out any bad sectors. This will take time. See the note above.
• Install the OS. If it is an upgrade install, see the note above regarding upgrade installs. Repair Permissions and then run the updates. Repair Permissions.
• Install your applications following your list. Make sure to Repair Permissions after each install and update..
Have fun, be prepared for a few minor glitches. If you multitask, you can get the garage/ or office cleaned out and your computer rebuilt. In all honesty, this process took all weekend plus time in the next week as I discovered apps that needed additional updates, configuration settings, etc. No doubt it would have been faster if I was sitting at the console the whole time, but I was able to get the office cleaned up and organized (which also makes ME much faster). Overall it was a very slick process.
When you have a fully functioning system again (you have tested all applications and everything works), CLONE the new system and put your info, your notes and the disks in a safe place - once you've done this once, why go through the pain of organizing this stuff again ...
Now, rejoice in a much faster machine with a lot more free disk space.
Cheers,
x