Can I restore to previous date

On 11-25-10 I was clearing out some old stuff to free up space on my HD.

I don't know what I did, but I have been having trouble ever since. The computer appeared to crash although I can't remember the signs. When I restarted it, it changed many appearance items and multiple other things that didn't matter much. I know that at least some of my stuff was saved because I found it using spotlight. Prior to converting to Mac on my PC I was able to restore settings to a previous date. This is a Macbook Pro 15" Intel 2 running OS X 10.4 and I cannot find where I could perform a similar action. Also, it has started running pretty slow. If I could figure it out, I'd be a happy camper. Is there a way I can view all activities from that day? No updates have been recorded either, and I checked to see if my versions were outdated and they are. If so, then what do I do? I am trying to get things cleaned up as I have Snow Leopard to install and an iPhone 4 on it's way and don't want to add them on top of my problems. Please have patience with me, I am over 50. Thanks

 

Have you been using Time Machine to keep timely backups?
It is one way to maintain a set of restore dates.

 

No, it wasn't available on OSX 10.4 that I am aware of.

 

If you have a backup somewhere you could do a clean install with Snow then move your data back over. Snow made a lot of things run faster. If your running low on ram and/or HD space, things slow down. I would let the Software Updater run and catch up on all of the updates and patches. It should take you to 10.5.8 .

You can use a cloning program to image your HD, so nothing is lost. Another route is use the simple FileSync application to copy your data files and Library. Or just burn a DVD with all of your data you need to keep, as a backup. iTunes has a backup utility built into it for your music, and can use it to restore.

As far as restoring to a previous date, Not that I aware of unless you had some type of backup program running. You can do a search based on date, and find the files that way. The use of a smart folder would speed that up pretty quickly.

 

NOTE: Wide-Area Service Discovery disabled to avoid crashing defective DNS relay 192.168.1.1.

What does this mean? I am getting this message on the console log after seeing it on the activity monitor.

 

I am going to have to guess that has something to do with your network card. Maybe something is faulty in the software/hardware?