[X-Newbies] How to get rid of or fix a file

[Philip J Robar]

On Mar 4, 2007, at 4:49 AM, Peter Saint James wrote:

> In attempting to make a backup, SuperDuper reports a corrupted file  
> which it will not copy and therefore will not complete the backup. I  
> moved the file to the trash, but when I tried to empty the trash, I  
> got a warning box saying that the file was in use.
>
> The file is this one:
>
> 	/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.4.2/ 
> Libraries/./libsuncmm.jnilib
>
> Is it better I don't trash this file?  If I should not, what do I do  
> about it?
>
> If it's okay to trash the file, how do I find out what process it  
> belongs to so that I can get it out use? Since it is a system file,  
> does this mean that's impossible?

Let's start with an analogy: A non-decorative part of your car isn't  
working. So even though you know nothing about what the part does or  
how cars work or how to fix them, you decide to throw away the damaged  
part without finding out if there is an underlying problem and hope  
that the car keeps running. Unfortunately the part is stuck and a  
small hammer doesn't work so you go to a forum where you hope there is  
someone more knowledgeable than you and ask if its OK to use a bigger  
hammer to beat on it until it breaks off.

The answer would be, no!

1) Put the file back where it came from.
2) Run Disk Utility. This will tell you if there is a more serious  
underlying problem with the file system or not. If there is a problem,  
keep running it until there isn't a problem anymore. If Disk Utility  
is unable to fix the problem try rebooting in safe mode. Disk Utility  
runs as part of the safe mode startup process and can do things in  
this state that it can't when run on a live system. Once in safe mode  
try Disk Utility again. If this doesn't work try other tools like Disk  
Warrior, ProSoft, etc. At some point in this process you may find  
yourself in need of knowledgeable or professional help.

3 If you get to the point where you know your file system is OK then  
reinstall the version of Java that has the corrupted file. We know  
that this is version 1.4.2 from the line you included in your message.  
A little web searching tells us that its installer can be found at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/javaupdate142.html 
. You are also comforted since you read the documentation at the site  
and it tells you that other versions of Java 1.4.x will be completely  
replaced with the new installation.

(By the way, if the first run of Disk Utility doesn't find any  
problems or only finds minor ones then you're probably Ok. If there  
were more serious problems, but they also are fixed then you're also  
OK, but there's no guarantee, depending on the type of damage found,  
that there aren't more corrupt or lost files. This is why regular and  
rotating backups are so important.)

Else, if your file system and/or other files are still corrupted you  
save as much data as you can by telling SuperDuper! to ignore things  
it can't read. Then you wipe your disk, restore from your last good  
backup or reinstall from scratch, and then selectively restore from  
your backups.


lsof is a command line tool that shows what files running processes  
have open.

Phil