I have OS9 & OSX on my G4, and I ran into trouble a few months ago when I was switching between the two. My computer guy said that it couldn't find the information it needed to work properly, and recommended that I "clean the desktop" regularily. Does this make sense? and how do I do this?
Thanks for the help.

Dear backshed,

It is a curious question/solution. Cleaning the Desktop is always desireable, but it should not cause such problems as you're describing. If that is what it takes, try it. Will take less time and cause fewer sleepless nights than your experiencing.

This Forum used to have a lot of activity. There were several people, deaconblue, lepetitmartien, coldharbour, etc., who could and would answer such questions with ease. Used to be a Learning Center. It seems to have been vacated. What's up? Anyone out there? I know I Posted my share of 'Stupid Questions' and 'Unqualified Answers'! I used to look forward to openning 440 Forums, it seems abandoned. Backshed, keep us informed as to what happens.

backshed, VST/OS9 and AU/OSX can and do 'Clash'. Is your Mac Retailer familiar with "Music"? All Technicians/Sales are not created "equal". Where do you live we can find a good Tech near you. They even do house calls, but your problem does not seem to need this. Is your Software Registered? The Mac Security Updates can cause havoc if there's unregistered Software.

Perhaps I'm brainwashed, paranoid or programmed by the retailers, software notices, legal matters, but I think software abuse/misuse is more PC than Mac. Mac owners seem to be less daring and more protective of their machines than PC users. I've seen some great software for PC. You just have to be a Rocket Scientist to Custom Install, Crack Codes, blah-blah. Hell, why not just pay the $20.00! No offense to any PC owners... I admire your abilities, and all the software, freeware, shareware, stolenware available to you. There has never been the amount of Software for Macs as for PC's. Never will be. But, if Mac accepts the License Deal... It will work 97%... Bugs fixed free in an update.

backshed,

I think they meant "rebuild" your desktop. This restores the desktop DB file information for where and how files are stored under mac os 9. To rebuild your desktop you can hold down the command and option keys during start up. You will be prompted "Are you sure you want to rebuild your desktop" before it actually loads. To get more info on what that means and what symptoms would be applicable to needing to rebuild, check out the Rebuild Your Desktop File knowledge base article from Apple.

Best of luck. Hopefully, it is this simple and you'll be back up and working shortly.

peace.

Your "desktop" is what you see on your screen when all of your applications and folders are closed or not is use. Some people download or "save to" their desktop, because it makes it (whatever it is you're saving) easy to find.

But after a while, the desktop gets very cluttered with files and folders. This slows your processor down. Get rid of files on your desktop by placing them in an appropreately named folder within your hardrive, or, if you need access to certain files all of the time, you can create a special folder for these files and leave it on your desktop.

The less you see on your desktop, the better it is, generally speaking. "it couldn't find the information it needed to work properly"? That's a pretty generic statement for an Apple technician or repair guy. I would not hire again.

You have both OS 9 and OS X? Are they partioned on 1 drive or do you have 2 hard drives? You essentially have 2 desktops when you have 2 OS's. And this also means that there are 2 different processes to perform routine maintenance and keep them in shape.

While you're booted up in OS X, you should "Repair Permissions" once a week. Here's a link with good instructions-

Mac Attorney

For OS 9, rebuilding your desktop is good-

APPLE SUPPORT

The best (freeware) maintenance utility for OS X that I know of is Onyx. Info and download here-

MacUpdate-Onyx

And don't forget to keep your browser caches and history cleaned up too... Maybe you could shop for a "clean up" utiltiy that will work on both OS X and OS 9?

This post has been edited by jce44: Tue 29 Aug 2006, 15:06

Thanks for all your help. 'Rebuild desktop' is the term I should have used. Yes, all my software is licensed, and my mac is not hooked up to the internet. I work mostly in OS9, but recently bought software upgrades so I'm ready to move into OSX - But - I don't want to encounter the same problems I had last time, so I'd like to do a rebuild before changing the startup disk. Once I'm comfortable with the upgrade, I'll eliminate OS9 from the picture. I really appreciate the help.

If you initialize a disk with OS 10 but you plan on also running OS 9 be sure and check the OS 9 box when you're in OS 10's disk utilities / drive set-up. Also, if recording to a firewire disk always make sure the firewire connection is un-plugged when booting in either OS. After the machine has booted you can connect the firewire drive and power it up. All internal disks must be initialized in OS 10 with the OS 9 box checked or you will be in a world of hurt. Can you say, "Disk Warrior?"