I was on here a while ago because my Logic 6 just stopped working (It just would not boot) I got a lot of advice from some very clever people on here but in the end nothing worked.. and I did try everything! So in the End I have bought a copy of Logic 8, now my question is this.. Is it advisable for me to back up my hardrive and erase and install osx before I do? I have had my g4 power mac laptop for a few years and it's not as fast as it used to be, will this help the situation? Lastly I read that if i erase and install there is a chance my computer won't be able to read my oxford 911 external, some fault within osx tiger, is this true?

This post has been edited by ryanie: Tue 16 Oct 2007, 16:31

Every few years an erase & install is a good thing. I liken it to scraping the barnacles off the bottom of a boat; it just cleans out some software "gunk". Not very scientific, I know, but your machine will feel zippier after an erase & install.

As for the oxford 911 chipset issues, I don't have anything to offer you in that regard; check Apple's kbase at support.apple.com

Maybe that using OnyX and clean up part of the mess, running the BSD scripts, trashing the caches, etc. would be a good idea. An OS X slowing down is to report to less than adequate maintenance, partly because Apple doesn't explain to customers that some things have to be done especially when the computer is not running 24/7.

Download OnyX, run the S.M.A.R.T. tests, check the drive, authenticate, go to automation and have everything checked on save the mail mailboxes index thing. It'll run the scripts (which should run regularly if your mac is not on 24/7, you can see and change the hours in OnyX/maintenance), trash caches, initialize some potential causes of issues like the links documents to apps or the presentation for each folder. You'll have a little of work later to tell the mac yes while opening some files, reset to your taste some windows but you'll find a faster mac back.

Important note: if you have an error about "mdimport" quitting after you've finished, it's linked to spotlight reindexing things and choking on your mailboxes, just uncheck mail in the system preferences>spotlight panel. I've just found out that, and it helps!

About your oxford 911, if the drive bridge is really really old, there's firmware to care about, meaning if the enclosure is at least 5 years old. Else, there's no issue. Now, I strongly advise you not to have any drive on save the one being tigerized, it's an install after all and it's basic safety measures even if there's no issue usually.

Thanks Lep, a fountain of knowledge as always! I had downloaded onyx already on your previous advice but had somehow overlooked running the bsd scripts, I did this and it has solved all kinds of problems for me my oxford drive is only a few months old so that should be fine. I wanted to erase & install to clean my system out and defrag the drive, I never partitioned my drive when i bought my laptop so i thought this would be necessary, there doesn't seem to be any option for defragmenting in osx, is it necessary?