Archive & Reinstall or SD Restore???

[flashcamo]

Hi there,

Sorry if this is an obvious & dumb question but I'd rather take advice than shed tears...

I've got a problem! A limited knowledge of what makes computers work and a non-working MacPro computer :)

Today I tried to install the new Adobe Lightroom 2 on my Macpro. Had some major stuff up and now I get funny performance with Finder but am basically locked out. Problems are same in either SAFE BOOT or NORMAL BOOT modes;

mouse moves, dock icons grow & shrink but that's it... no drop down menu, no icons respond to clicking, nothing. Kaput!

I've tried to find out what the problem is haven't got an answer. Tried all the ideas in the OSX 'Missing Manual" plus those I could find on the web. Strange problem?

I'm planing on restoring the system & don't know if I should either Archive & Reinstall or restore from a very recent Superduper backup.

Can you suggest which might be more painless for me? I've not done either. I have lots of various software, settings etc etc & don't want to have to sort it all out again.

All my non system data is on 2 other internal drives plus I have a 2 day old Time Machine backup that's in good shape should I need.

Many thanks for any help.
Cam.

[dnanian]

I've given general advice in response to your emailed support question, Cam. But one thing I didn't think of there: have you tried switching mice?

[flashcamo]

Hi Dave,
You asked if I did a backup just before the problem install. It was about 4-5 work days ago & given that & what I had learned since my post I went for the archive & reinstall option. This seemed best for 2 reasons;
Didn't want to loose any changes & you mentioned in your SD instructions something like 'a SD restore is more serious an option than Archive & Restore".
I finally pressed the button on it & was gritting teeth in fear. On completion my trusty password was gone & I couldn't log in... sweated beaded upon my brow... I then found in the book about how to use the install disk utililty to reset the password & then straight in... opened mail, you message came in & I'm off again.
Suppose I now need to run software update & just sus it out.

Learned some good stuff today...
Your support is excellent
Computers can't be trusted
Must change my SD drive housing to firewire (from USB)
A big cock up like this is actually very easily fixed (with fingers still crossed)

Thanks,
Cam.

[flashcamo]

Oh... the mouse.. nup, only have one & didn't do that. I did find some posts about wacom tablet users with problems but didn't think to try that out. I think the mouse is OK & the prob was something else weird coz I could use mouse no worries when running the menus with install disks.

[dnanian]

Glad you've recovered; definitely a bizarre problem!