A few newbie questions (I'm used to windows)

F

FOOOD

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I'm a pretty new mac user & am used to working with windows. I have a few things I'd like to know if its possible to do o my mac that I'm used to doing in windows:

1.
Defragment the HD:
On windows I can defrag my HD. is it possible on Mac. & if so how?

2.
Scandisk the HD:
On windows I can scandisk (CHKDISK) my HD. is it possible on Mac. & if so how?

3.
Refresh key:
When I send files from my windows PC to my mac they don't appear right away on the mac deskop. If I open finder it seeems to nudge them into action & they show up. In windows I can refresh the desktop (or any window) by pressing F5.
Is there something like this on the Mac?

4.
Delete key:
If I select a file/files & hit the delete key (below the help key) it doesn't delete the files. I have to hold the command key & press delete. Is there 1 key I can hit to delete files instead of pressing 2?

5.
Memory:
After using a few apps & closing them I see (on a konfabulator widget) that I only have a low amount of memory free (even though I've cloed all/most of the apps).
Is there a way of flushing the memory to free up the space again?
 
FOOOD said:
I'm a pretty new mac user & am used to working with windows. I have a few things I'd like to know if its possible to do o my mac that I'm used to doing in windows:

1.
Defragment the HD:
On windows I can defrag my HD. is it possible on Mac. & if so how?
Click to expand...
you don't need to defrag in osX... you can find a lot of post on this topic here in macosx.com, just do a fast 'search' on the forum to obtain more info about this...

FOOOD said:
2.
Scandisk the HD:
On windows I can scandisk (CHKDISK) my HD. is it possible on Mac. & if so how?
Click to expand...
Actually I don't know how the scandisk on windows is working, but a very important maintanance in osX is to go to application>Utility>Disk Utility and -after choosing your volume- do a Repair Disk Permission. Particularly after major software updates, but i do routinely every week. Another good tool is to get Cocktail

FOOOD said:
3.
Refresh key:
When I send files from my windows PC to my mac they don't appear right away on the mac deskop. If I open finder it seeems to nudge them into action & they show up. In windows I can refresh the desktop (or any window) by pressing F5.
Is there something like this on the Mac?
Click to expand...
I really don't know....

FOOOD said:
4.
Delete key:
If I select a file/files & hit the delete key (below the help key) it doesn't delete the files. I have to hold the command key & press delete. Is there 1 key I can hit to delete files instead of pressing 2?
Click to expand...
Instead of pressing 'delete', just press [apple]+[delete]... it would move your file to the trash...

FOOOD said:
5.
Memory:
After using a few apps & closing them I see (on a konfabulator widget) that I only have a low amount of memory free (even though I've cloed all/most of the apps).
Is there a way of flushing the memory to free up the space again?
Click to expand...
remember that when you want to quit an application, you need to quit it and not only to press the red button but also to go to the menu in the top of the desktop and select quit... you can do it also by pressing [apple]+[q]...
 
Hi m8,

Don't panic! As a user of both platforms myself, I too can get frustrated. But here are a few tiips that may help you.

1 Defragging your hard disk.
Apple don't include a defragger in the system the way Windoze does. As OS X is based on UNIX, disk fragmentation is not a huge problem. Sure it does happen, but not to the extent that it happened with OS 9 and with Windoze. You will need to get The Norton Utilities or similar software to sort it out.

2 Scandisk.
If you look in the Applications folder, you will find another folder called Utilities. This contains an app called Disk Utility. You can use this to perform the equivalent Scandisk operation. Be advised though that Disk Utility will only "Repair Permissions" on your boot disk, which often solves any problems on your disk, but if the problem still exists after you have performed this operation then you will need to restart from your system CD/DVD by rebooting while holding down the "C" key, choosing "Disk Utility" from the menu and running it from there. Again, The Norton Utilities or similar software will sort it out.

3 Refresh key.
Nope – not to my knowledge. If you copy a file to a desktop window, when you click on the target window to make it active, if the file has finished copying, then it will become visible.

4 Delete key.
NASTY! Eeeeeuuuuw! We Mac users don't like the Delete key. The [Cmd] [Backspace] key combo is the way to go –*get used to it. That key combo will move the selected file to the Trash. [Cmd] [Shift] [Backspace] will empty the trash. But relax! That's the way God intended it.

5 Memory.
OS X, being based on UNIX uses memory in a completely different way to Windoze and OS 9. Both of these use collaborative multitasking. In other words, the system relies on the various applications themselves to behave. OS X uses pre-emptive multitasking, which means that the system itself controls memory allocation. I too use the Memory widget and was alarmed at first when I first noticed how little memory appeared to be available. But OS X is very good at keeping everything ticking over and reclaiming unused memory as and when necessary.

I hope that this has helped.
 
Hi!

5: use Activity Monitor in Utilities to see exactly how much memory different task uses. Maybe you have a broken shareware or something that hogs a lot of ram? maybe konfabulator uses it all?
 
I would not recommend Norton for anything except virus protection. It is an unsupported product and can hose your system, there are many threads about this. It is not neccersary to defrag OSX as it does it on the fly. However if you do wish to defrag a drive I would recommend Drive 10.
 
Thanks a lot, this is very helpful! :)

So I don't need defrag? Cool


I haven't had any problems with any of my disks. I just like to maintain things. So I can run Maintain Permissions to keep everything running nicely. or just when I have problems?


I have all the apps closed properly.


One thing I still don't understand though is the memory.

I have 1 GB of RAM & it says I have 15 MB free.

The only apps I'm running now are Firefox, Activity Monitor & a few Konfabulator apps. I added up the running processes & it comes to 210 MB.

In Activity Monitor it says:


Wired: 98.07 MB

Active: 386.24 MB

Inactive: 518.60 MB

Used: 1,002.71

Free: 15 MB

VM size: 5.14 GB


How come I barely have any free RAM?
 
I wouldn't worry unduly about the amount of RAM that the Konfabulator Memory Widget displays –*or even Acivity Monitor. Ask yourself this: in all the time you have been using OS X, have you ever NOT been able to launch and use an application through lack of memory?

Exodus has a point about Norton. I would only use it, Drive 10 or any other software as a last resort when a problem absolutely can't be solved by Disk Utility.
 
about ram: from my understanding of memory management in any *nix based OS it is drastically different from windows or even OS 9 for that matter. i don't know the technical differences betwee the terms (such as inactive and free) but I would not worry about it unless you are getting some sort of problem with not having enough ram to launch a program or you see that it is paging to the harddrive more than it should. as mentioned earlier make sure that you are in fact quiting the programs instead of just closing all the windows for the program. if you look in the dock and see a black triangle next to the program icon, then it is still running.
 
Thanks, I'll try not to worry about the memory thing :)

Yes, I am quitting the apps. not just closing them.

Thanks again!
 
You seem to be getting awwfully upset about things that just aren't important. Unlike Windoze, OS X takes care of itself. So just relax and enjoy computing the way God intended!

::angel:: ::angel:: ::angel:: ::angel:: ::angel:: ::angel:: ::angel::

:D
 
Memory is handled differently in UNIX environments (like Mac OS X) than it is with Windows computers.

Your "free" memory isn't the amount of memory you have left to use -- it's just memory that hasn't been used at all yet. As long as you've got at least 512MB of RAM in your machine, you'll never have to worry about running out of RAM -- even if you only had 128MB of RAM in your machine, you'd still never run out, but you would experience a possible slowdown if too many apps are open. This is just because the system will "swap" out memory to the hard drive if it needs to free some up, and we all know that the hard drive is a million times slower than RAM.

Long story short, get at least 512MB of RAM in your system and forget about it. The system will handle the RAM for you in the best way possible so you never have to think about it. Even after quitting all open applications, your "free" memory may not go back up -- and that's a good thing -- the system is keeping memory used by applications still "active" in memory, in case you launch a program you just quit -- that way, it doesn't have to page all the memory for that application back into RAM: it's already there. If you happen to launch another application that needs that RAM, the system will free the RAM and allocate it to the new application.
 
Do not use Norton Utilities. Disk Warrior or Drive 10 - both are bootable CDs and will be able to scan the drive and fix all problems. While Windoz machines can defrag and scandisk while running from the hard drive, it is not advisable for the Mac. It is best to boot from another source (CD) and scan and repair. This is why you can not use Disk utility from the Utility folder to repair the drive.

If you turn off your machine at night, I suggest you download Macaroni. It will do the daily, weekly and monthly routine maintenance procedures that is normally done within the system at night.
 
I have to third it on Norton Utilities - it's garbage. I had it on my machine for a week and promptly removed it....it required removing its tentacles from just about every folder I went in to. Thank God viruses and adware, scumware etc aren't an issue for Mac users.

sd
 
Cheryl said:
It is best to boot from another source (CD) and scan and repair. This is why you can not use Disk utility from the Utility folder to repair the drive.
Click to expand...

Not strictly true, Cheryl. Not everyone wants to buy a separate disk utilities suite, which is why Disk Utility is included on the System installer CD/DVD. You can boot up from the System CD/DVD and run Disk Utility from there. When you boot from the System CD, it defaults to the installer, but you can [Cancel] that and run Disk Utility instead to perform more complex repairs than is allowed if you run it from your hard disk.
 
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