Rebuilding your desktop

[Integrate]

should I be rebuilding my desktop often? and How do I do it?

Thanx

[tld]

Hold down the Apple and Option keys during the boot. After the extentions load it will ask if you are sure you want to rebuild the desktop.

I've seen suggestions to do it ever couple of weeks. Actaully I've been using my 9600 for the better part of the year without ever doing it, though I probably should.

Just today I saw another thread hear (titled 'corrupted session' I think), where someone had a PT session that was pulling in incorrect audio files etc...really whacked....and rebuilding the desktop fixed it! Go figure.

Tom

[Gary Stadler]

Um...I also wonder...although everyone says rebuild it regurlarly, I'm another 9600 user who simply never does, and I never have problems. My computer is on and working 18 hours a day, and I think I've rebuilt the desktop maybe twice in 3 years? I never have crashes and I never have problems, so I really wonder why some people say it's so important..???

[tld]

I agree Gary. I'm guessing that, to some extent, it may be a throw back to older less stable versions of Mac OS.

Tom

[trombino]

I'm the guy that fixed seemingly corrupted sessions by rebuilding my desktop. I also have a 9600 and hadn't rebuilt my desktop for a really long time prior to this experience. I agree that it's probably not something that needs to be done all that often, but I would suggest that it be done once in a while, and should definately be considered if/when crazy unexplainable things start going on with your sessions... It's worth a shot!

Mark

[PTPerson]

I find that when you have updated software, drivers, trashed preferences etc and you are having problems, rebuilding the desktop is often handy - although maybe just the action of turning the computer on and off may be actually the fix!!

[HoosierSnd]

According to TechTool Pro, the 'rebuilding of the desktop' is an equivalent to the reordering of the 'paramater ram' or 'pram' which can get tangled after long use.
In my understanding of this (from reading the docs of techtoolpro) it makes sense that an entangled session could be remedied this way...

Still, I use a 9500 w/8.6.1 and a Newer G3 300 card, and I very, very seldom rebuild and my sys is (knock,knock on wood) very stable.

Yep, go figure... <GG>

steveV

[Humbucker]

Any purely Apple related issues can be researched at Apple's Tech Info Library, which accesses their entire technical document library. You can do a search on multiple terms and review any relevant documents. It's located at: http://til.info.apple.com

Some good general info is, "Mac OS: Rebuilding Desktop File and Icon Recovery" located at: http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n10182

Additionally, MicroMat's "TechTool" utility does a bit better job of rebuilding the desktop file than just using the keyboard commands. They make a pro version, but you can download their free version at: http://www.micromat.com/techTool/index_techTool.html