Time machine question

jonseyblub

I've a iMac that won't close down properly. I sent it away to apple who came to the conclusion that it's a piece of software I've installed that is preventing it from closing down. It makes sense as if i log into my guest account i can shut down the computer from there.

My question is if i were to uninstall every piece of software I've installed is it possible to restore everything again by just using my time machine back-ups, instead of having to go down the DVD route. I've a few pieces of Adobe software that require a DVD to install.

ZENER

Go to System Preferences>Accounts>(your account)>Login Items and remove everything except iTunes Helper. Restart the machine and see if it shuts down properly this time.

Try Activity Monitor for applications that may not be quitting properly and do a Repair Permissions on the drive in Disk Utility.

Ken

jonseyblub

Thanks for that. I've tried that and it didn't work. It's definitely is a program I've installed and It's just a matter of finding out which one I need to uninstall. I plan to do it one by one but I just need to know whether or not I can reinstall the same program using restore from Time machine.

ZENER

It depends on the application. Something like Adobe CS installs many files in several different places in both the home and root directories. In theory if you locate every file and note their location then you probably could probably reinstall it. Smaller programs only install in the applications directory with perhaps a preference file in the users library folder so could be restored from Time Machine in theory.

How far does your Mac get in the Shut Down process ? Do any errors appear on screen ? Another good place to look would be in the Console app in Utilities. Check the logs there and see if anything sticks out. Sounds obvious but quitting out of all applications CMD+Q before shutting down may also help ?

Ken

Sad Professor

Deleting apps is unlikely to solve anything. There's probably something running in the background that's preventing shutdown. Have you any crappy software installed that might be the cause? Anti-virus or security software maybe?

jonseyblub

Thanks for the suggestions. I've an amount of pieces of software installed. i used to have parallels installed and i had a major problem with that so i fully uninstalled it. As far as i can see there is no trace of it anywhere to be seen. As far as i can remember the problem started back when i had it installed.

It's not really a problem because I'm selling it and when i wipe the disk it'll be fine but while i still use it, it's a bit of pain.

Liameter

jonseyblub wrote: »

My question is if i were to uninstall every piece of software I've installed is it possible to restore everything again by just using my time machine back-ups?

Not realistically, no.

Better to "clone" your Hard Drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, or similar. Then set that as the boot drive and delete stuff till it works. At that point you can reboot with your internal HDD, knowing the cause.

ZENER wrote: »

Try Activity Monitor for applications that may not be quitting properly

I fail to see how that can "not work". You'll be able to see all the background tasks and stop the most likely culprits, one by one.

jonseyblub

Okay,

So I've solved my problem. Itunes is the program preventing me closing down. I've spent the last couple of days uninstalling all my software and sill the problem existed. I came across this thread from mac forums

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1152556.

When I repair disk permissions the mac shuts down straight away. When i restart and open a few programmes (except Itunes) and use them as normal i can then shut down straight away. However if i open ITunes and nothing else and then try to shut down it won't do so. The only way to stop it is to repair disk permissions again.

I'll be on to apple about this tomorrow as I still have a year left on my Applecare. Strange one

donutheadhomer

jonseyblub wrote: »

Okay,

So I've solved my problem. Itunes is the program preventing me closing down. I've spent the last couple of days uninstalling all my software and sill the problem existed. I came across this thread from mac forums

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1152556.

When I repair disk permissions the mac shuts down straight away. When i restart and open a few programmes (except Itunes) and use them as normal i can then shut down straight away. However if i open ITunes and nothing else and then try to shut down it won't do so. The only way to stop it is to repair disk permissions again.

I'll be on to apple about this tomorrow as I still have a year left on my Applecare. Strange one

which osx do you have? if lion or ML then reinstall from the recovery partition - it won't delete at data or 3rd party apps and will reinstall iTunes for you. Be sure you got a backup though just in case