Problems with opening MacBook

[Ian']

Using El Capitan, but unable to get Finder to open. In fact, nothing will. Have ghost icon of Firefow in dock and force quit but can't remove them even though software for this programme has been removed. Any help most welcome as am in middle of it job. Thanks

 

[honestone]

First of all, what exact MacBook model do you have?

Secondly, what version of El Capitan are you running?

Third, have you been making any backups to an external device?

Fourth, have you been performing any disk cleanup/maintenance for the internal drive?

Fifth, your statement "unable to get Finder to open" is confusing. When you boot up your machine, does it boot to the desktop? That of course is when you typically will start things like EMail, browsing (I assume you mean Firefox, instead of Firefow), etc.

 

[Ian']

Very many thanks for taking the trouble to respond. I eventually solved the problem by letting the battery run down to enable me re-boot the machine. As a matter of course I back my work on a memory stick and in Cloud. Thanks again for your help

 

[honestone]

Hmm, strange solution, but certainly effective!

When you say "backup to a memory stick", how "big" is the memory stick? And, what software are you using for backing up?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome,

In addition to honestone's assistance...

I eventually solved the problem by letting the battery run down to enable me re-boot the machine.

If you did that to simply let the battery run out, so you could connect the MagSafe and startup fresh, you could have held the power button for several seconds until it powered off, then powered it back on immediately. It is not recommended under normal circumstances, but is effective when the Mac will not respond. In addition, you don't have to wait for the battery to be exhausted to continue troubleshooting.

C

 

[Ian']

Thanks to both of you. Being self-taught and one who has written for publication before computers were invented, I have the scantiest knowledge, therefore I sought the most logical (to me) solution.
I backed up this book of 4GB stick simply by copying the file across. I write in Word and also back up documents in Google Docks before transferring to Ipad tablet.

 

[honestone]

While copying some files to various devices/software is OK, you are asking for trouble if you do not start making an actual backup of your entire system. The Apple OS already has free software for doing just that, called Time Machine. Myself, I use SuperDuper! for backing each of my Macs to an external drive (actually, I do two such backups for each machine to two separate external hare drives). It costs only $27.95, and it makes a bootable backup/clone of each system, and everything on it. (Carbon Copy Cloner is another excellent product which does the same thing).

So, you should first purchase an external hard drive for your Mac, and then start making actual, full system backups.

 

[Ian']

Many thanks. I shall follow your advice.