Some weeks ago on this list I made some comments as to the suggestions of some, as to why I was having problems getting my head around my new eMac was configured.
On kind invitation from Caroline, of the Hamilton Ontario Macintosh Users Group (HACK) I went to their monthly meeting on Wednesday March 12. Basically I had many questions, and the feeling I got rightly or wrongly was I was a fool for even wanting to tamper with God's ways (Apple's way) of configuring Macintosh computers. The group was just mildly amused that when my iMac dided I had 5.6 gig free of a six gig hard drive. The guest that evening may have thought I was just a little mad. Told him and the assembled people I was from the old school; if something sits on the hard drive and is not used for a period of say 30 days, it is history, or is saved on to some medium away from the computer. In the plong distant past, hard drive had to be kept enmpty, they didn't work well otherwise...maybe i am wrong? On the one hand David Pogue in his book The Missing Manual Mac OSX Second Edition suggests that parititoning any hard drive is easy, and really should be done. On the other hand the Mac users Groups suggested I could, but why make a mess of the way the system is configured? There has always been for me three ways, the suggested way, the other way, whatever that may entail and my way. Granted not always the best approach however have found the only way is try the first two or three and then see if my way works. If not, try something else. Probably work best on my own, without interference from others, however figured OK, so what is on this machine that makes it do darn different and why does it keep failing? Either it drops into Unix mode with nary a care and sometimes won't boot into OS Ten from Nine? Sometime it won't even start in Nine or go from Ten to Nine! Also tried to explain to them the OSX really probably hasn't evolved very well, Apple comes up with these cute names to describe the latest and the greatest improvements. And most people figure oS X is the greatest thing since the beginning of computers. Suspect my sympathies lie more with DOS as it worked, then, times change, I don't easily. Did a complete backup of the wanted software early Sunday march 14. And figured, OK, let's see what configuration this beast will do or not do. Erased he hard drive and made two equal sized partitions, Ten on One, but what's this, Nine is part of Ten on the CD, OK erase the HD, back to one partiton. I only want Nine first, not Ten. The computer said no, its all or nothing...erased the hard drive again, this time figured load ten first, again no dice. Erased the hard drive again. This time realized the "extras" files were living on those three restore CD disks, so this time figured Ten on one partiton, and the restore CD stuff, of Nine fame on the other partition. Ten Ok on one partition, however the three CD's wouldn't load into the other partition. Erased the hard drive, we're up to four times now! So, this was getting interesting, everything goes on one drive only, and everything follows along, in ttheory. How could the Apple people be so dense. Why don't they just tell us, put everything on one drive? Grrr. So did as was not suggested. Everything went just fine, was happy, for once. Figured go from OS X to Nine, fine OK. Worked in Nine and decide to go to Ten. The machine locked up, solid. Nothing worked. Had spent a sunny Sunday inside wrestling with the emac. Was on the verge of selling it and buying a basic used iMac with 8.6. At least it worked most of the time. nd was a simple machine albeit with no fan, which hastened its demise. So Monday trundled the beast back to the dealer, in Oakville, they were NOT happy to see me. Heard rumblings about my sanity. So they kept the machine overnight and tested. Hmm, everything seems OK, however you have two bad memory chips, one as installed originally by Apple and the new extra added chip. OK, change 'em, that was done, now the hard drive is unhealthy, "what did you do to this machine" new hard drive installed all under warranty thank you. And on checking now two months later my AppleCare Extened warranty still hasn't been processed, do you thing Apple really doesn't want to have me as customer given my meddlings?<G> So a week later everything seems OK, I stay in 9.2.2 on my side of the fence, the large jungle cat stays on his side of the fence, and I don't go near the fence. OS X be damned in my book, if it comes anywhere near 9.2 I'll skin it alive and hang it on the garage wall! Bryce Lee, Burlington, Ontario PS Five and Eight? Five times I erased the drive and started again, and eight times the eMac has been down and back to the dealership since I purchased it. -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
