Well, it does according to this......

What people are talking about is what you see in the main partition.
It seems to me that you are making this much too hard by looking into the details at a very low system level.
You should just proceed to install OS X from the Install DVD and then start a new thread if you encounter problems with your new installation.
But be sure not to install any 3rd-party software before testing your new OS X installation - test the system as supplied by Apple so you will have a baseline to compare with later.

You seem to be talking about problems in some past system. You currently (it seems) have a freshly erased drive and you can go ahead and install OS X on it. Please start a new thread for discussion of problems with the newly installed OS X if you encounter any.

I would recommend against running any such scanner if it asks you to approve running of a signed applet etc.
And in any case, the things it reports on will almost definitely not be relevant to your Mac since there are no known viruses in the wild for OS X.

[edit]
What Mac are you running that web browser on? (The one that you used to go to TrendMicro.com)
[/edit]

I'm running it on the only mac I have. I reinstalled the system early Wednesday. The problems aren't from a past system. /user/Dave is in my current log. Java for PowerPC is currently installed. The outdated certificate is here today after a "so-called" clean install only yesterday. My updates are installed even though I haven't updated. They are mostly for things I don't have, updates I don't need. They are all Apache 1.3.33 cache files. The reason I haven't updated is because after I update, things get worse.

any drive that's been formatted will have have areas reserved for formatting and boot information. I don't think it's possible to return a drive to a completely blank (i.e. unformatted) state without special equipment.

EDIT: or a big magnet. ;)

with os X (for the time being, at any rate) your main worry is if someone gains physical control of your machine and adds malware. there are few (if any) viruses or worms or spywares that infest macs, and a good dose of internet caution will keep you away from trojans and phishing sites. if you install tiger from the DVD, and then take some basic security measures (see here for a nice list) you can be very confident your machine is yours and no one else's.

in other words, if you can get a running system going at this point, you're fine; don't make your self nuts chasing shadows. :D

Umm, I thought we were still at the point of trying to get your disk to erase.
It doesn't help us to help you if you aren't communicative about what you are doing.

Okay, let's slow down and take things one step at a time.
And you need to start showing us what you are seeing instead of telling us what you think it means.
For example, show us (by copy & paste) what is in your logs regarding this "/user/Dave". And show us what it is (by copy & paste from the logs or whatever other source you are looking at or via a screen capture, etc) that makes you say that Java for PowerPC is installed. And whatever it is about Apache that has you concerned.

Do you even have Apache enabled ("Personal Web Sharing" in the Sharing preferences) ?

I think the outdated certificate you mentioned is something that came in over your web connection when you tried to use that online virus scanner.

But I think it would be a lot easy to troubleshoot all this if you would (as I thought you were doing) do another "erase & install". And then (as I said above) do not install any 3rd-party software before fully testing the newly installed system. And do not modify the configuration of your system (e.g. turning on things like web sharing in the Sharing prefs) before finishing your initial tests of the new system.

What's the subject now? :confused:

Here's what I think is happening:

1) OP runs questionable security software: http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/

2) Said software reports multiple alleged problems, most likely as a scare tactic to get users to buy more questionable security software.

3) Scare tactic works, causing OP to erase & install.

4) Running questionable security software on new install generates the same scary reports!

Same subject. After doing an erase and install, I still have files that don't belong here.



You're wrong. I only ran the scan after software update started popping up every hour or so telling me to update java and quicktime. This was a couple of months ago. Since then, I've tried over and over to remove the problem.

But go ahead and laugh at me. I really don't care. I'm so frustrated and sincerely seeking help. I was hoping someone would take me serious.

Once again, you need to tell us precise details. Don't say "I have files that don't belong" - instead show us what you are seeing that makes you say that. (via copy & paste from Terminal or a screen capture)
Explain why you don't think they belong.


We are taking you seriously.
But you haven't been very good at communicating what the situation is and what you are doing. (See above where I thought you had just finished erasing the disk and had not yet installed OS X .)

And problems that happened a couple of months ago are not in the least relevant to your current situation after having just recently done an erase & install.
Tell us about your current problems - in detail.
And don't run any 3rd-party virus checkers etc. Just use the tools that come with OS X - they are more reliable.

As I said before, if you are currently having extreme problems, then the thing to do is to do an "erase & install" and then (with afresh start) see how your system behaves. And once again, do not run 3rd-party virus checkers just to see what they say. Don't look for problems where they don't exist. Report on actual problems. Running those virus checkers are actually more likely to create problems than find existing problems.

It is a good thing to use the Software Update program. It intentionally popped up automatically to notify you of some new upgrade(s) that possibly fix some software bugs or patches up some security flaws.

On a side note, TrendMicro's HouseCall system is a good web applet for Windows PC's, but it is pretty buggy on Macs, and doesn't work well. Most of the time it doesn't even load properly.

Anyway, thanks for hanging in there. It's difficult trying to help people over the internet sometimes.

to mirror Hayne's request

what files? as precise a list as you can, please. :)

I know it's difficult, and I appreciate everyone's effort.

So, let's start again at around 3 am with my latest erase and install.

The pics aren't great, but that wasn't my concern.

1. Restart, holding down C key at startup

2. Select language

3. Welcome screen

4. At the License screen, I open Disk Utility

5. The first pic shows that I've selected to make 1 partition

6. Next pic shows partition options and the option I chose

7. After partitioning

8. Before erase

9. After erase

that looks completely normal.
first item: your hard drive
second item (indented): the single partition on your hard drive
third item: the install DVD in your DVD drive
fourth item (indented): the mac OS partition on the install DVD

the last two you can't modify at all, of course.

The weather is really bad here, so my internet is very slow uploading these pics. Thanks for being patient.

10. Select Destination

11. Select Erase & Install

12. Options

I'll skip to after it restarts, I select my time zone etc...

Automatic Update pops up. I select no. And yes, I know that updates are good, but I'm concerned that they aren't legit.

Especially since I choose to not update, but I receive them anyway.

Java for PowerPC

/user/dave/

He wasn't in the log this time, but the flash player file that is ever present, is still present.

ok, a quick search on my machine tells me you're looking either in ~/Library/Caches/ or /private/var/folders/**/**/-Caches-. there's no reason for you to look there and no reason for you to be worried about it. cache files are harmless, particularly cache files made by the installer. as far as users/Dave goes - notice that all of the logged events are failures. that probably has to do with the fact that you've made such a stripped down system some element of the installer is failing.

I'm still not seeing anything I'd consider abnormal here.

Mazzy,

Everything you've shown so far looks absolutely fine. In the screenshot attached to post #56, you're apparently looking in your ~/Library/Caches.

If you are concerned about Software Update, download Security Update 2007-09 from Apple's website:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307179
http://search.info.apple.com/?search...ate%202007-009

Security Update 2007-09 patches a vulnerability that was found in Software Update.

By the way, to turn off Software Update from asking you if you want to update, go to System Preferences > Software Update > Update Software tab and uncheck "Check for updates". This will need to be done in all of your user accounts.

Trevor