new to mac, spent days, cant figure, need HELP

[ishqueg]

Hi gang, new to the whole mac thing. Been a windoze drone up till now. I have so far loved the mac, (just got a simple emac with osx). Have been enjoying for the past few months Ive had it but have ran into a real dead end. Everytime I download something the disk utility opens up. Spent the past week trying to find help online to no avail. Finally I downloaded and installed Firefox, and that particular symptom is fixed, but I still cant do anything. This whole mess started when I accidently deleted my entire ipod library. I went to best buy and bought some software that I thought would allow me to save my info on a PC. (thats a whole other issue). Of course I didnt know it then but it was a pc disk and so wouldnt open on my mac because of the autorun. So I spend a few days trying to figure out how to open that disk, failed, then moved on to rebuilding my library. I downloaded a .bin and .cue file for use on my ipod. I need to convert the files, so I try to download VCDgear. When I try to open the VCDgear program Im told I need the stuffit engine. So I dowload that, cant open that because Im told its on a locked volume, select another destination. I know this is convuluted, but bottom line is, everytime I try to download something I cant open it, and everytime I try to fix what I think is wrong, I run into something else that I need to fix, (apparently), and so goes the viscous cycle. I know Im all over the map here and for that I do apologize, but thats about as good as I can explain it presently. Ive just finished another 7 hour stretch in front of this computer and fixed nothing. So, in closing, have mercy on a newby, GET me out of this hamster wheel of hell! .....(thanks)

[eric2006]

Originally Posted by ishqueg

So I dowload that, cant open that because Im told its on a locked volume, select another destination.

your message is realllly long, and I'm in a hurry, but if you drag the stuffit installer out of the image, this should be fixed.

[ishqueg]

Hi, I know the message is long but I couldnt really pin down what was most important to mention to get the help this situation needed. Im not sure what you mean by drag out the image- the stuffit icon on my desktop is titled: stuffitengineSDK902.dmg.sitx- when I double click on it it unzips another folder on my desktop called stuffitengineSDK902.dmg folder. when I open that I end up with a new icon called stuffit SDK build 948, and when I open that I get a window with folders labled documentation, headers, stuffit engineSDKlib, and stuffitengineshell.cfm. These are where I keep running into the same problem, if I try to open the stuffitengineshell.cfm I get the locked volume message, if I try to open the stuffitengineSDKlib, I get " there is no default application to open the document...and the world keeps on spinnig. Im not so well versed in computers in general, and am way over my head when it comes to anything mac, for the time being, so I apologize if it takes me longer than most to get what needs to be done.

[bobw]

This is the Stuffit you need;

http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/exp-downloadv.html

Not the Stuffitengine you now have.

[majormunky]

Just as a quick heads up, since your new to Mac's.

Most programs you would download from the net will end up being a .dmg file. In your case it looks like it was a .sit file, which when unzipped, became a .dmg file. A .dmg file is a disk image. If you double click the .dmg file, it will put a new icon on your desktop, which is essentially a disk (similar to if you were to put a cd-rom into your mac). Inside of that "disk" will either be an icon you drag to your apps folder, or a setup file which you double click on to start setup (very much like windows).

I think bobw got you fixed up on the stuffit problems, but I thought id clear that up. I had read a post once where this guy's girlfriend was opening firefox from the disk image for months, and not really getting good results (nothing being saved after she closed firefox, etc). He didnt know you were supposed to drag the Firefox icon to the apps folder and run it from there.

Anyway, good luck with all that.

[barhar]

01. Deleting an 'iPod' library will not effect which (decompression) applications are executed, to handle files of various formats.

02. If you double click on a downloaded '.dmg' file, and 'Disk Utility' launches, instead of 'DiskImageMounter.app' of '/System/Library/CoreServices/' - then you will have to (via 'Get Info' - [in either Step 3 - click on 'Other...']) reassign 'DiskImageMounter.app' to handle '.dmg' files.

03. If you do not already have 'StuffIt Expander' - you cannot decompress any '.sitx', 'sit', and other compressed format files. Do as bobw stated, and use his supplied link to obtain a '.dmg' version of 'StuffIt Expander'. (See '02.' above, to decompress the 'StuffItExpander11.0.2E.dmg' [12.8 MB] file).

04. Before purchasing a disc and / or installing said disc into a Mac - check the packaging for 'Macintosh' compatibility.

05. 'VCDgear' is downloaded as 'vcdgear177-041114_macosx.zip' (156 KB in size). By double clicking on the '.zip' file - 'BOMArchiveHelper.app' (also in '/System/Library/CoreServices/') should auto launch and decompress the UNIX file. See Step '02's suggestion for application reassignment.
Thank you for mentioning this potentially nice utility.

06. 'newby' - or 'newbie'?

[Satcomer]

You seriously need to remember this is NOT a Windows machine. The best help you could get is read the book (it is a very easy read, with pictures even) Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition by New York Times tech reporter David Pogue. This book will help you immensely in warming up to your new Mac.

[ex2bot]

When you get everything sorted out, check out VLC. It is a nice movie viewer. Plays lots of formats, including DVDs and SVCDs.

Doug