Mac Slow Like Molasses

[The Monkey]

Those fsckers. I figured as much. Thanks.

FIFM.

[Currawong]

Apple's HFS+ filesystem is journalled, so if you hard-restart the machine, for example, it will just read the journal to figure out what needs fixing, instead of requiring a filesystem check (fsck). However, I have managed to end up with a screwed up filesystem irrespective, fixed by starting in single user mode and running fsck, which took quite a damn long time.

If the file system is screwed up, Mac OS X behaves horribly. For me, it was Firefox randomly deciding that clicking on links would do nothing and similar odd program behaviour. Some other things that commonly fuck up and now to fix them:

• Corrupt caches: Fixable with Leopard Cache Cleaner (Medium cache clean option on the last tab).
• Corrupt fonts: If screwed enough, will cause programs to pop up errors. They can be removed from /Library/Fonts or /Users/Yourusername/Library/Fonts depending what and where they were installed.
• You installed something, and by that I don't mean copied a program you downloaded to your Applications folder, but something with an installer: If the installer was the Apple one, start it up again and press command-i to get a list of files installed. Maybe it installed a plug-in or something that is causing whatever to screw up.

[The Monkey]

These suggestions continue to be helpful. Thanks everyone.