Power Mac 5500/250 desktop problems.

[JRL]

After I deinstalled Norton Utilities, my desktop file started getting extremely bloated and made me lose almost all of the games and apps that were on my hard drive. :O

Luckily, I made a backup, but how can I manage to reinstall stuff, especially when everything goes back to "Application not found" after shutdown and startup?

I know there is a way to "lock" individual items, but how do you do that?

(It's running OS 8.6 btw)

 

[MacMan]

Have you tried re-building the Desktop File (hold down Command + Option during startup)?

 

[equill]

Especially if your applications' custom icons have reverted to generic icons, MacMan is likely to have nailed the cause of the confusion. You can begin to hold down command-option when the splash screen appears—which will spare you some finger-fatigue—and hold them down until a panel asks "Do you rilly rilly rilly wish to rebuild ... ". All attached hard drives (one or more, if you have externals connected and active) will have their desktops rebuilt. There are commercial utilities that do a better job than Apple's, but monthly (say) rebuilds are a worthwhile addition to your normal housekeeping, and whenever applications and their files lose sight of each other. The Desktop files are constantly being rewritten during normal use of your computer, and can quickly become bloated with the shadows of deleted files, scrambled at scattered locations, and so on.

Norton versions after 3.2 were neither HFS+ aware nor PPC-fluent, which you may already have found out. DiskWarrior 2.1.x and its travelling-mate PlusOptimizer, by contrast, do a reliable job of disk directory defragmentation and file defragmentation and optimization, respectively. Unfortunately, it is likely to be available only second-hand now. Perhaps you can find someone who is leaving OS 7.6.1 - OS 9 behind in their move to OS X.

de

 

[JRL]

I have done that a bunch of times(the normal way and TechTool) A TechTool PRAM zap seems to be working now. I'll tell you guys if it is later.

 

[Temetka]

You can shove a nickel or a quarter in between the two keys to hold them down for you. Saved me in the past from having to sit there with my fingers holding down those keys.

 

[JRL]

And.... It apparently works! However, I'd still like to know how to lock items.\

EDIT: But only for a short time. > I checked with a 7.5.3 Disk Tools floppy and apparently the disk needs to be repaired. I have to do this with my PM 5500 backup I made on a zip disk, but the Zip drive is being borrowed by a friend.

UPDATE: However, 8.6 Disk Tools says the drive is okay. I'm confused... :?: